The visiting New York Knicks came into last night’s tilt against the Wizards with the NBA’s worst record and the league’s highest payroll. With just 19 wins, the Knicks brass is paying roughly $6.5 million dollars per win. They, much like the crowd at the Verizon Center last night, aren’t getting their money’s worth.

The Knicks came out flat and fell behind 14-2 in the first four minutes and never recovered on their way to an embarrassing 105-90 loss that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. The Knicks had 27 turnovers and 30 field goals and were led by reserve Jackie Butler. The Wiz on the other hand, had all five starters in double figures and got 30 points from their bench. They played like a team happy to be home from a six game road trip, and they deserve credit for not getting complacent early after building up leads approaching 30 points at various points in the game. The game was such a cake walk that Gilbert Arenas only took 10 shots all game, content to simply dish out 13 assists and get everyone else involved.

After a successful 3-3 road trip, the Wizards are looking good heading into the final nine games of the season. After tonight’s game in Boston and Friday’s at Atlanta, the team will get their own playoff preview as they match up with six of the eight teams currently slated to make the playoffs in the East (as well as Chicago — next Friday — who trail Philadelphia by just a half game for the last playoff spot). The Wiz currently sit five and a half games behind fourth seeded Cleveland and are a game and a half ahead of Milwaukee, so they aren’t likely to move up in the playoff seeding in the last nine games, but the opportunity to move down is there. Stay tuned.