[17][18][19][20] However, Jones would miss the entire season due to a foot injury, and would never play for the Knicks.
[25] The Knicks enjoyed a successful season, with their 57 wins tied for the third-most in franchise history;[4] they finished second in the Atlantic Division and third in the Eastern Conference.
[27] With Houston as the team's starting shooting guard, John Starks played a sixth man role off the bench,[28][29][30] averaging 13.8 points per game and leading the team with 150 three-point field goals;[26] he was named the Sixth Man of the Year, receiving 84 out of a possible 115 first-place votes from the media.
[26] In the final game of the regular season, at the United Center on April 19, 1997, the Knicks defeated the then-69–12 Chicago Bulls, 103–101, preventing them from posting two consecutive 70-win seasons, and tying the best home record (40–1 set by the 1985–86 Boston Celtics, and later matched by the 2015–16 San Antonio Spurs).
[48][49][50][51][52] In the playoffs, New York defeated the Charlotte Hornets in a three-game sweep in the Eastern Conference first round, and advanced to the Eastern Conference semi-finals,[53][54][55][56] where they faced the Atlantic Division champion Miami Heat, in what would eventually become the first chapter of one of the fiercest NBA rivalries of the period.