Ewing, Oakley Keep Knicks Respectable

Patrick Ewing’s scoring and Charles Oakley’s rebounding have kept the New York Knicks from getting off to a disastrous start.

The Knicks were 1-2--with a loss to expansion Orlando--as they fell behind 62-42 late in the first half against the New Jersey Nets Thursday night.

But Ewing and Oakley were brilliant in the second half as the Knicks rallied, outscoring the Nets 59-41 in the last two periods for a 107-105 victory. Oakley had 17 of his 22 points and 11 of his 18 rebounds in the last two periods and Ewing scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half.

A chorus of boos, seldom heard last season when the Knicks went 52-30 and won the Atlantic Division, welcomed them to the sidelines when a timeout was called late in the first half.

“It reminded me of my rookie year when we used to get booed a lot,” Ewing said, remembering the Knicks’ 23-59 record in his injury-plagued 1985-86 season. “We don’t ever want that to happen again. So we came out in the second half and did what we had to do.”

Despite 8-for-23 shooting against the Nets, it was the fourth straight game with 20 or more points for Ewing, who is averaging 26.8.

Oakley, who has vowed to win the NBA rebound title this season, has at least 11 rebounds in all four games and is averaging 14.5. His 18 rebounds against the Nets were one shy of his single-game high last season.

“You can never fault Charles’ effort,” Knicks coach Stu Jackson said. “He does the dirty things -- gets loose balls, tips rebounds and keeps the ball alive. We needed that after we were so hesitant and tentative in the first half.”

Ewing and Oakley both said they were upset with the Knicks’ performance in the first half.

“We believed at the half we were capable of winning, so we came out and played like we’re capable of,” Ewing said. “If we didn’t believe in ourselves, we wouldn’t have won.”

“It was layup, layup, layup for them,” Oakley said. “I was embarrassed and we were mad at ourselves. We had a little talk at halftime. We played harder in the second half and slowly chipped away.”

The Nets shot 51.8 percent from the field in the first half and 36.1 percent in the second half.

“I don’t ever remember us not getting back on defense like that before,” Oakley said.