If there was a team the New York Knicks needed to face in order to break their 3-game losing streak, it was the Phoenix Suns who came into Madison Square Garden Wednesday night with a 4-9 record and losers of 5 straight. The Knicks, playing the 2nd of 4 straight home games, were coming off their Monday matinee loss at the hands of the Orlando Magic. Both teams split the two games they played last year with each team winning on the road. Head coach Mike D' Antoni, who coached Suns guard Steve Nash for years, knew the team would have its hands full.

"He's one of the best players to ever play the game," said D' Antoni. He works exceptionally hard at what he does. He knows the game exceptionally well. He does everything well."

Steve Nash lived up to the praise D' Antoni heaped upon him as he led all scorers with 16 points and 4 assist in the first half as Phoenix took a 45-42 lead. With Carmelo Anthony still dealing with a sore wrist and ankle, the Knicks wanted to get Amar'e Stoudemire into the offensive flow right from the start. He took the team's first 3 shots, scoring 3 points finishing the quarter with 5 points along with Tyson Chandler. It was enough to give them a 1 point first quarter lead (20-19) even though they shot a paltry 37% from the floor missing 6 of 7 three-pointers.

The second quarter was slightly better for the Knicks as the shooting increased to 42% but they trailed by 3, as the Suns extended the lead to as many as 6 (43-37) after a Marcin Gortat (5-13, 11 points) jump shot. Anthony would miss 4 of 5 shot attempts with Stoudemire ending the quarter with 15 points. Two themes that stood out and would be a factor in the loss was New York's inability to convert free throws and take advantage of them dominating the boards. The final stats would show why.

The Knicks kept things close in the 3rd only trailing by as many as 4 points during any period. Landry Fields, (6-12, 17 points) who played his best game of the year, led all scorers with 10 points. Both teams only scored 19 points leaving the Suns in front (64-61) to begin what would be a back and forth last period. Neither team would trail by more than 3 points in the 4th until the Suns pushed the lead to 7 with 3:22 left after a Shannon Brown slam dunk.

New York battled back with rookie Iman Shumpert (8-14, 20 points) scoring 10 of the team's last 17 points. He hit 2 consecutive 3-pointers, the second bringing the team within 2 points 85-83. With the time running out and no timeouts left, New York was forced to foul sending Nash to the free throw line. He sank 6 in a row, as his team ended its 5-game losing streak. New York took 30 free throws (14 more than Phoenix) and missed 10. They also out-rebounded the Suns by 16 (15 more offensive) and could not take advantage, as they finished shooting 37%.

"It's killing us," stated D' Antoni after the game of the offensive futility. "We won almost every statistical category but couldn't put the ball in the basket." Dominating the boards would normally lead to the team getting out to more fast breaks but for whatever reason, the Knicks were not able to do that. "We tried and did a little better in the fourth quarter. Overall it was not good enough."

After the 91-88 loss, the New York Knicks record fell to 6-8. "We're in a little bit of a crisis," D 'Antoni admitted. "The good thing about it is that they're playing hard, they're playing good defense, they're rebounding."

They're just not winning games.