A "B-plus" is appropriate.

Clearly, the Knicks are a work in progress, capable of an exciting performance like the one they authored last night and stinking up the joint the next. But at least that's better than the calamity that existed a year ago under Isiah Thomas.

The Knicks' 22-31 record is just one short of the 23-59 debacle of a year ago, and no one has been chanting that anybody should be fired. The Garden was at full throat last night, the way D'Antoni has predicted and preached throughout this season of change.

Has everything been perfect? Of course not. The handling of Stephon Marbury was a fiasco in the beginning, with D'Antoni looking disingenuous by going through the motions during training camp as if Marbury had a role on the squad, only to bench him before Marbury was ultimately banned from the team.

Forgetting the Knicks had a foul to give, a senior moment that cost the Knicks a win at Portland on Feb. 8, was an embarrassing mistake, especially with a bench full of assistant coaches who were also in a fog.

But overall D'Antoni has made the Knicks interesting again. Lee and Robinson are having career years. Youngsters Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari have shown promise.

Games like last night offer hope the best is yet to come; if not this year, then maybe next year when a free agent class led by LeBron James might be looking for a new team.

In a strange way the firing of Terry Porter 51 games into his first year as the Suns head coach raises D'Antoni's stock. Porter's emphasis on defense and a controlled half-court offense caused a revolt led by Steve Nash. New Suns coach Alvin Gentry, the last holdover of D'Antoni's staff, has said Phoenix will return to the up-tempo attack general manager Steve Kerr junked when he showed D'Antoni the door last year.

Kerr and the Suns brass have too much ego to admit they made a mistake. But the Suns loss looks to be the Knicks' gain.