Revamped Knicks looking like bona fide Eastern Conference contenders

The Knicks hardly have been playing with their food throughout the holiday season, and they certainly do not need to apologize for fattening up against a softer portion of their schedule versus some of the NBA’s lesser weights. If Memorial Day is the first true mile marker of legitimacy within the baseball season, Christmas Day or thereabouts generally is that indicator in the NBA. And following a disjointed 5-6 start while integrating two new starters, Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks have taken off over the past six weeks.They have posted 15 wins in 19 games since mid-November to establish themselves as a viable contender in the Eastern Conference with a top-5 record in the entire NBA. Friday’s game in Orlando will come against another of the East’s better squads — and the one right behind them in the standings — even if the Magic continue to play without injured All-Star forward Paolo Banchero. The clicking Knicks have been stacking wins lately — five in a row after their Christmas matinee victory over the Spurs — to improve to 20-10 overall for the No.

3 spot in the East.They were 1 ¹/₂ games ahead of the Magic, who were 19-12 entering their home game Thursday night against the Heat, and just two behind the No.

2 Celtics. The league-best Cavaliers, the West-leading Thunder and the improved Rockets were the only other NBA teams to begin play Thursday with a better record than the Knicks. A vast improvement on the defensive end has spearheaded the recent surge, and that was even before versatile stopper OG Anunoby shut down 7-foot-3 center Victory Wembanyama — despite an 8-inch difference in listed height — down the stretch of Wednesday’s contest. The revamped team ranked near the bottom of the league early in the season in defensive rating, but it is now 14th overall after posting the fifth-best figure in that category in December. The Knicks, who hope to get defensively active big man Mitchell Robinson back in January from offseason ankl...