"Here were the Knicks without Carmelo Anthony against the mighty Miami Heat Friday night, and you just know that Amar'e Stoudemire had to love it.

For this night and as will be the case Saturday in Houston, the Knicks were Stoudemire's team again, just as they were before Anthony came to the Garden and took over the entire Knick operation.

Anthony had not made a shot in what seems like weeks and you can bet that factored into his decision to shut himself down. But the idea that he had "LeBron Flu" is preposterous.

If you have watched Anthony and James go at it head-to-head over the years, you know neither backs down. They are good friends off the court and that is evident when they are on the same court. That's because they seem to have a gentlemen's agreement that goes something like this:

Ill let you score, you let me score.

Then everybody goes home happy.

James refers to Melo as a "brother" and he seemed to take Anthony's absence for the first New York-Miami showdown of the season hard.

"It sucks, it sucks," he said beforehand. "You play the Knicks and you don't play Melo and then you play the Lakers and Kobe's not playing and you play the Heat and D-Wade is not playing and you play Boston and Paul Pierce is not playing. It's these guys you like playing against. They're some of the best in the league. You thrive playing against them. As an individual, it sucks."

Not for Stoudemire, though.

Go back to when he was the Knicks' top gun and although the Knicks were only slightly better than a .500 team, he ran the show and nobody was bigger in New York for those four months. With Raymond Felton playing at an All-Star level for several weeks, the Knicks ran the pick-and-roll to perfection."