New York Knicks: It Takes 48 Minutes to Be a Championship Contender

It's been the question all year long: Are the New York Knicks contenders or pretenders?

The Knicks have an immense amount of talent and have shown the ability to play on both ends of the floor. Their biggest problem throughout has been consistency.

New York has been a tale of two teams this season.

First, you see a spirited team like the Knicks were on Easter Sunday, who, although they got lucky with missed free throws down the stretch, had a never-say-die mentality and ultimately became victorious.

Defensive intensity was there and although they didn't play their best game, this Knicks team showed heart.

That is opposed to the other team that we saw last night.

A sluggish team that couldn't get it going offensively and instead of working their offense, being aggressive and playing hard defense, the Knicks settled for jump shots and allowed a struggling player like Rip Hamilton to bury them in the third quarter.

And that's on top of the second quarter, which was the difference in the game, when the Bulls outscored the Knicks 25-10.

Even in their win against Chicago on Sunday, they were playing lights-out in the first quarter but couldn't get it done for the entire 48 minutes.

If this team wants to compete for a championship, not only will they need Amar'e Stoudemire, but they will need a vast improvement in their consistency as well as their effort for the length of the game.

As great as Carmelo Anthony is playing, the ball still needs to move and this team can't always just fall back on their best player. Another player must step up.

Because, as has been the case during this entire season, it's the Knicks' team ball that has gotten it done no matter who's hot at the time.

Offense and defense as a team, no matter if it's Jeremy Lin, Amar'e Stoudemire or Carmelo Anthony leading the charge.

I can't even begin to predict what this team will do the rest of the season because they are simply too streaky to guess if they'll bring it or not on any given night. We've seen both sides of the spectrum and both have been magnificent in their own right.

Magnificently good or bad.

It just remains to be seen which team coach Mike Woodson's Knicks will bring to the floor tonight and down the stretch of the season.