NEW YORK – The Knicks entered Monday in a series of five consecutive defeats including close defeats and kicks. There were encouraging moments, but also frustrating moments.

They needed a victory.

"You just want to keep your guys encouraged that what they do, that gives some fruit to this job," said coach David Fizdale. "You want them to feel the joy of victory, for me it's a relief, but you want them to see that all the hard work they do is turning into something for them."

Fizdale returned to the same lineup, but this time he won 115-96 against the Brooklyn Nets at Madison Square Garden.

It was the Knicks first win since they had eliminated the Atlanta Hawks at the opening night of October 17th.

Four of the five Knicks starters finished with two figures.

Tim Hardaway Jr. had 25 points and eight assists while Frank Ntilikina had 16 out of 5 shots out of 13, including 3 out of 5 in the perimeter.

"What I liked was that we spent a lot of time and spent a lot of time on our ball movement and our execution," Fizdale said. "I've seen some things get lost after training, especially the movement of the ball, which makes the game easy to find the player open on the weak side." I thought Timmy had done a great job of tonight."

Hardaway's face was bloody at the end of the second quarter when he was accused by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. The Knicks' medical staff stuck their lips at halftime and Hardaway came back for the second half.

The Nets were playing the second half in a row after losing to the Warriors on Sunday night, and it shows.

Brooklyn shot only 28.9% of its perimeter on 38 attempts.

The Knicks only allowed Caris LeVert to score four points on two shots out of eleven (0 out of six) from the perimeter.

Keeping the same lineup meant that Fizdale took Mitchell Robinson back in the middle, instead of Enes Kanter, but Kanter was sacked and finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds in 26 minutes.

Robinson, however, had impressive moments at both ends of the floor and threw some thunderous dunks.

Robinson finished with 11 points and three rebounds.

"We needed it," Hardaway said of the victory. "We spoke earlier today in shootaround and we all focused on getting back on track, we need to start with tonight, we have this series of games in which we can go and try to do our best to win them all and we end up in discord. "

Work with Rasheed Wallace

Rasheed Wallace, the former star of the club, has been working with the Knicks for two days. He spends time teaching Robinson, who has a lot of potential but still has a lot to learn.

During Sunday training, Wallace vocally directed Robinson and the rest of the field before the Knicks through intense drills.

Being part of the voice is part of what Fizdale wants Robinson to learn from Wallace, who played 21 games with the Knicks in their 2012-13 season with 54 wins.

"I think you can go around the league and ask anybody that he has the biggest mouth of the league," Fizdale said. "And I want to say that with a lot of love and affection.He changed this Pistons team with his voice.It is something that I really hope it will to make Mitchell understand, it's to be a defensive quarterback, you really have to use voice. "

Robinson continues to progress as he adapts to the NBA. Fizdale saw good things on Monday night.

"He had a lot more property where he was supposed to be and we could be organized and have special actions," said Fizdale. "Every night, if it's just going a little slower for him, it'll be great for us."

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