THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Knicks Need to Ring Up One More for Riley

All those nights watching the New York Knicks smash backboards with their jump shots. All those nights wondering if he would have to bail John Starks or Anthony Mason or Greg Anthony out of some jail.

After a journey that would have made Odysseus think twice, the Knicks are a victory away from an NBA title, a remarkable development that has less to do with the heart and soul they advertise so proudly than the sheer will of one man who is, of course:

Pat Riley.

Friday night’s 91-84 victory over the Houston Rockets put them up, 3-2. Sunday’s game will not only be their big chance but their 24th playoff game this spring, tying the record for the longest postseason.

The record belongs to the ’88 Lakers coached by--who else?--Riley, who had to go seven games with the Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks and Detroit Pistons to win the back-to-back title he had guaranteed.

Not that that one didn’t take its toll on all of them, too.

When the Lakers went down, 2-1, to the Jazz, Riley benched Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and James Worthy at the end of Game 3, then vowed the next day to keep them sitting if they didn’t want to play.

In the next series, Riley decided he couldn’t stand the sight of Mark Aguirre schmoozing with his buddy, Johnson, in the Laker locker room any more and stationed his publicist, Josh Rosenfeld, at the door to keep Aguirre out.

After the Pistons’ Isiah Thomas sprained an ankle while scoring 42 points in a Game 6 loss in the finals, the Raiders let him use their facility for treatment. Before Game 7, a Raider official wished Riley’s wife, Chris, good luck. Chris said the Raiders had undermined her husband’s chances and told the official to get away from her.

“I always say that ’88 title was Pat’s championship,” says his old Laker assistant, Bill Bertka. “He would not let them lose. He would not let them lose.”

Those days, Riley had Kareem, Magic and Big Game James. Now he has Patrick Ewing, John Starks and Charles Oakley. Believe this: It’s not the same.

From the moment this series started--with the Rockets coming off an eight-day break and the Knicks a seven-game series against the Indiana Pacers--Riley was all over his players’ heads, refusing to entertain the notion they would be tired, ordering them to start making their shots, letting them know there would be none of that “good learning experience” stuff if they lost.

Through a season of injuries, cold spells, disappointments and tabloid hell, Riley held them together.

“We were talking about that before the game,” Riley said after Friday’s game. “It seems like we’ve been out there forever.

“We started out at midnight Oct. 6. We wanted to be the first team to hit the floor in ’93 and hopefully, the last team to leave in ’94. Right now we’re on the brink of what they’ve been dreaming about.”

They might have dreamed about it, but before he took over, they had no idea how soon it could happen and how much it would take. They found out, even if it almost finished them off.

Riley, in an uncharacteristic burst of detachment, said a couple of days ago he was eager to see his players win one, for all it would mean for them and do for them.

But he, himself?

“It’s not gonna change me,” Riley said. “I’ll be happy if we win it, but another ring or whatever else comes from it is not going to change me.

“I mean, in the beginning it was wonderful. It was a different feeling the first time I won it. It was just like these guys feel right now and how desperate they all are to get that.”

Riley, the insatiable, sated? You know how hard this season had to be if the man who never gives an inch sounds like he’s wondering if it’s worth it any more.

He’ll worry about that in a week. Between now and then waits his destiny. Besides, he has been stuck on four since ’88 and still needs one for the thumb.