I suppose everybody can exhale.

Still, let’s not go jumping up and down until the Knicks beat a good team. The bucket of cold water comes with apologies, but Chicago is playing worse right now than any team I’ve seen all season. Neither team got any style points this afternoon. It was ugly.

But a win is a win. I know. So does Eddy Curry, who had more room to roam with Zach Randolph setting up nearby.

“Last year when we played them in Chicago, they were all over the place and wouldn’t even let me get touches,” Curry said. “Today, I was kind of expecting the same thing, but they weren’t able to do it. I think with the addition of Zach, they gotta pay attention to both of us, they can’t just shut one of us out of the game.”

Quentin Richardson latched onto a lot of big rebounds. Now you see why he’s starting. He’s still hurting because of the elbow, but does so many other things besides shoot, kind of like a crafty Larry Johnson did all those years ago when the Knicks were considered a winner.

It was strange to hear the crowd boo Stephon Marbury one minute and cheer him the next. This was his best game since the sudden departure in Phoenix.

David Lee had the best take on that situation.

“What happened a week or two ago, fans have an opinion on that, I guess,” he said. “But Steph’s done a good job of staying focused and he’s a tough-minded guy, a guy who’s been through a lot, so this isn’t his first rodeo when it comes to this stuff. I know he told us, don’t worry about it, I’m going to keep playing through it, and he’s done a great job for us.”

Jamal Crawford was awfully quiet, six points and four assists. It was his best defensive game of the season, though. He actually went around the top of several screens.

When these teams get together, the Knicks will always win if Marbury and Crawford outplay Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich. Look at the numbers. Marbury and Crawford teamed up for 25 points and eight assists while Gordon and Hinrich went for 24 points and five assists.

Now, with that done, allow me to obsess on something Thomas came up with during the pregame chat with the media. He needs to be careful about offending diehards in these parts who are up on their Knicks history.

Let me know how you read this quote …

“This is the toughest place to win and the toughest place to coach and the toughest place to play,” Thomas said. “This is the ultimate test of who you are and what you’re about. That’s why people come here to try to pass the test of winning in New York. A lot of people have failed. I think there’s only been one coach to win the championship here. There’s been a lot of failures, but this is where you come to get tested. So here we are and my job is to try to survive this test.”

So is he calling Pat Riley a failure? What about Jeff Van Gundy? They won in New York. And by those standards, is he labeling his own tenure at Indiana a failure?

It shouldn’t be a big deal, I know, but it sounded a little awkward.