"Based on their pedigree, or draft position, we might have envisioned Terrence Williams to be a Nets starter by now and the Knicks' Landry Fields to be an apprentice in the N.B.A. Development League. But scouting reports are not the most effective indicators, given their preoccupation with vertical leap and 3-point range.

Hence, the Nets hit Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night to play the reconstituted Knicks without Williams, the 11th pick of the 2009 draft, and the Knicks were wondering who blessed them with Fields, their starting off-guard, who was selected in the second round with the 39th overall pick in 2010.

"Have you met him yet?" Donnie Walsh, the Knicks' president, asked a reporter before the Raymond Felton and Amar'e Stoudemire-led Knicks went over .500 with a 111-100 victory. "Let me tell you something: he's the real deal.""