"Early in the second quarter, when the Knicks trailed the winless Wizards by 16 points, coach Mike D'Antoni sat on the hottest seat in Washington, D.C., outside President Obama.

But the "Broadway Bigs'' — and sensational rookie Iman Shumpert — lived up to their hype to key a wonderful comeback last night, powering the Knicks to a desperately needed 99-96 victory over the 0-7 Wizards at Verizon Center.

Without any help from their starting backcourt, the Knicks' frontcourt dynamos of Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler combined for 72 points and 34 rebounds, with Shumpert starting the second half and doing almost everything right in just his third career game.

Anthony, playing with groin pain that was later diagnosed as a sore lower back, finished with 37 points including the game-winning 3-pointer from the right wing with 15.9 seconds left. The rousing victory before a few thousand transplanted Knicks fans temporarily eased the panic of two straight home losses to Eastern dregs Toronto and Charlotte that had Knick fans calling for D'Antoni's head.

Anthony, who was slightly limping in the final two minutes, said he expects to play tonight in Detroit.

"It was a great comeback win,'' Anthony said. "We needed this one. For us to give up 32 points [in the first quarter] is unacceptable."

Because of his lame-duck status, D'Antoni might not be able to survive a dreadful start, and he seemed to know it."