Every time the New York Knicks think they’re seeing that light at the end of the tunnel, a freight train comes and squashed their hopes of making something out of this season. The Sacramento Kings were the next team to find the Madison Square Garden very accommodating, as a huge night from Jimmer Fredette might the final nail in the coffin that is Mike Woodson’s tenure as a head coach.

The Kings came away with the 106-101 win in overtime, as Carmelo Anthony once again did close to everything on his own with 36 points, getting help from Tyson Chandler (17 points) and Amare Stoudemire off the bench (20 points). However, his head coach preferred leaving an injured Raymond Felton on the court for most of the fourth quarter and all of overtime, resulting in terrible turnovers without anyone actually pressuring him that might have cost the Knicks the game.

As for the Kings, hitting the All-Star break on a high note is all that they could ask for. For Fredette, scoring 24 points with 6-of-8 from beyond the arc, it’s about proving there’s a place for him in the NBA, with the Kings or anyone else, from next season going forward. Derrick Williams was in the same mindset, scoring 14 points off the bench, as the Kings did very well with a lineup that included Fredette, Williams, Rudy Gay, Isiah Thomas and Ben McLemore.

I didn’t expect us to be in the situation that we’re in right now. If somebody would have told us that before the season, I’d have put any amount of money that they were lying. But we’re in this situation right now and we’ve got to fight through it. We can’t go back and get this game. We didn’t finish the game. I think we played well in spurts. We just didn’t get it done.

The same lines getting boring. No answers to what’s happening, simply talking about the situation being not good. J.R. Smith wouldn’t play without his mask, and the team in general continues to be a group of guys who don’t seem to be too well coached, only feeding off the highs and lows of energy spurts, which simply isn’t good enough in this league, even with one of the best scorers in the NBA on their side.

They’ve already lost more games (20-32) than they did in all of last season, with injuries (Iman Shumpert left the game in the second half with a limp) and the coaching situation not really helping them climb out of the hole they’ve found themselves in.

Sacramento aren’t going anywhere this season, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any goals. Not finishing at the bottom of the Western conference has to be in someone’s minds, but improving as a group and finding out who is good enough to keep for the future, not to mention players becoming free agents doing well for themselves and showing the league they’re worth another contract.

It was a lot of fun. You dream about this, growing up not too far from here, and this is the best arena in the world. It was an amazing experience tonight. But I was just happy we got this win and go into the All-Star break on a high note.

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