Knicks Win the War, 101-99 : NBA: In battle of premier centers, Magic’s O’Neal scores 41 points, but Ewing scores game-winning basket with 2.4 seconds remaining.

Two of the NBA’s best centers, on two of the NBA’s best teams, in one of its most storied buildings, playing on the stage of national television less than a week into the new season. It was almost too much to ask to have the two titans going mano-a-mano in the final moments of this wrenching, drenching drama of a game.

But that’s what the sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd, the national cable audience, the 200 accredited media and the world of skeptics got Thursday night. Shaquille O’Neal, less than 24 hours removed from a career-type game in an overtime win in Charlotte, nearly dragged his Orlando Magic team to an improbable last-minute comeback. He didn’t fully complete his mission because Patrick Ewing completed an equally improbable last-second play, draining a 14-footer from the right baseline with 2.4 seconds left. That gave the New York Knicks a 101-99 victory and first blood in a fight that might not end until early June.

The Knicks are 3-0 as they head west for a trip that begins Saturday in San Antonio. The Magic is 2-2, with both losses coming in the final seconds on the road.

O’Neal thrashed the Knicks for 41 points, his second consecutive 40-plus-point game (he had 46 in Charlotte), many on his signature dunks, a surprising number on a silky baseline turnaround jumper. Ewing might have matched O’Neal’s total had he stayed on the court more than 26 minutes: He hit his first seven shots, six of them jumpers, and knocked down 11 of 17 overall on his way to 24.

Most important, he had the bucket that stuck the knife in the Magic’s heart. And the way he scored it couldn’t have made the Magic’s loss much easier to swallow. O’Neal began the sequence by muscling through a tangle of Knicks’ arms for a layup with 10.8 seconds left, tying the score at 99 and completing a rally from a seven-point deficit with three minutes to go. O’Neal scored the Magic’s last 10 points.

Either an overtime or a shocking finish in regulation was in the making. Certainly a Knicks timeout was in the making -- they had two left. But the Knicks did no such thing: John Starks took Charles Oakley’s inbounds pass, bolted up the right side, left three defenders in his wake, spotted Ewing curling to the right baseline and passed it over. The rest might not be history, but it won’t be forgotten for a while, either.

Supposedly, there was method to their madness. Ewing said he looked to Coach Pat Riley to see what to do on the last play, “and he said to push the ball up the floor. I saw John Starks moving the ball upcourt, so I ran with him and cut across the lane so he’d have an option if the shot wasn’t there for him. He got me the ball, and fortunately it went in.”

“I thought there might be a timeout,” Knick point guard Derek Harper said. “But with a timeout, they would have had time to set up. On a set situation with Shaq setting up inside, it would have been real tough for us to get off a good shot.”

Apparently, the Knicks guessed right. “Everyone was in limbo, waiting to see what they were going to do,” said O’Neal, who got to the other end in time to wave a futile hand in Ewing’s face. “I think that we expected them to call a timeout, and Starks came flying up the side and dished to Ewing, who made a great shot.”

“Normally I would have taken the timeout,” Riley said. “But with 10 seconds to go and being tied, I think it was a good play, as random as it was.”