Mardy Collins returned to the Knicks' lineup after serving a six-game suspension and scored 11 points in 22 minutes.

It was the rookie guard's flagrant foul against Denver's J.R. Smith that triggered a brawl at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 16, resulting in the ejection of all 10 players on the court at the time and additional suspensions for teammates Nate Robinson (10 games), Jared Jeffries (four) and Jerome James (one).

"Anytime you sit out for a number of games, you always want to get back out there and play," Collins said. "The NBA decided that six games was enough, so I just had to deal with it. We're still short-handed at guard, so it's time for me to get some playing time, show people that I'm not that type of player, and I can actually play basketball the right way."

New York is 4-3 since the brawl.

Richard Hamilton, the NBA's masked man, didn't hide his feelings about the Pistons' porous play in the final minutes of their triple-overtime loss at the Garden last night.

Hamilton scored a career-high 51 points but had little to celebrate after Jamal Crawford & Co. made all the right plays in the final minutes of the final three frames of the Knicks' 151-145 win.

"It's tough, man, because we had more than one opportunity to win the game," Hamilton said. "But we just made boneheaded moves down the stretch.

"We know late-game situations, we know how to win," he added. "But we pretty much let this one slip out the door tonight."

Channing Frye forced the third overtime with a buzzer-beating jumper, Jamal Crawford took over from there and the Knicks outlasted Richard Hamilton and the Pistons 151-145 Wednesday night.

The Knicks withstood their third overtime game in 10 days and Hamilton's career-high 51 points, the first 50-point game against them since Michael Jordan accomplished the feat in 1997. They improved to 4-0 in OT this season, including a pair of triple-overtime games. New York won at Memphis in its season opener.

Isiah Thomas fined Knicks guard Steve Francis after he was unable to make it from his Takoma Park, Md., home to Westchester yesterday due to fog at the airports.

"I'm not OK with it," Thomas said, "but we'll fine him and move on from there."

It remains a question whether Francis will play tonight against the Pistons at the Garden - not for disciplinary reasons but for health.

He returned to the lineup Saturday against the 76ers after missing eight games with tendinitis in his right knee. He scored nine points in 16 minutes in Philadelphia, but complained about the knee after the game.

"I'm not sure if Steve will play [tonight]," Thomas said. "I think it was an emergency thing [Saturday night] where I think he tried to help us out."

The New York Knicks are scheduled to see Jared Jeffries back in uniform tonight when they face the Detroit Pistons.

Jeffries missed four games for his actions in the brawl against the Denver Nuggets.

Jeffries claims he is not worried about being rusty after his latest time off the court.

"Defense is all effort and communication," Jeffries said. "It ain't like my game is based on shooting the ball a lot. My game is based on going out there and doing the small things."

Steve Francis played 16 minutes on Saturday night for the first time since December 6th.  He is suffering from tendinitis in his knee.

"I don't know, man," Francis said about his knee. "It didn't feel that comfortable. I still felt a step slow. It felt like I was out there for two hours. It's never going to go away, but hopefully I can continue to try to treat it to maintain. I want to get healthy.

"I've been running on the side and doing things like that. There's going to be some discomfort. I just have to bear with it and take my chances. Hopefully it will be better."

Pat Croce, the eccentric former owner of the Sixers, was on WFAN radio in New York with Joe Benigno on Wednesday talking about Allen Iverson.

Croce claimed he talked to Knicks owner James Dolan about buying the Knicks, but said Dolan expressed no interest in selling the team.

If Mardy Collins had it all to do over again, he wouldn't change a thing.

He would still have taken down Denver's J.R. Smith with a hard foul. He would still have done anything to prevent another dunk against his floundering Knicks.

The NBA slapped Collins with a six-game suspension on Monday for his role in igniting Saturday night's brawl with the Nuggets at the Garden. The melee began with his two-hand tackle of a streaking Smith late in the fourth quarter of the blowout loss.

"I don't regret fouling him as hard as I did, I just regret the whole thing escalated the way it did," Collins said at Monday morning's shootaround. "I was out there competing. I didn't want the guy to get a layup. I was trying to stop him from going in the air and that's why I fouled him that hard - so he wouldn't get hurt.

"My job is to play hard. I felt the score - we were down 20 (actually 19). I didn't want the guy to do a dunk. I could have easily made the guy go in the air and it would have been a worse foul. I just tried to keep the guy from going up."

Charlotte Bobcats guard Brevin Knight will miss his second straight game with a groin strain, according to coach Bernie Bickerstaff.

Bickerstaff said Knight is a scratch for tomorrow night's matchup with the New York Knicks. The Bobcats will also be without power forward Sean May (sprained ankle).

Bickerstaff plans to again start Derek Anderson in Knight's place, in order to continue using rookie Adam Morrison off the bench.

Speaking publicly Tuesday for the first time since he was suspended for 10 games, Nuggets guard J.R. Smith was contrite, embarrassed and said he didn't necessarily disagree with the length of the suspension.

But that doesn't mean he will not appeal the NBA-mandated penalty.

Smith, who will not play until Jan. 8 against the Milwaukee Bucks if the suspension stands, first sounded as if he had no problem with the length of his punishment.

"To tell you the truth, I think it was (an acceptable) penalty," he said after practice. "I did the wrong thing; I was in the wrong. I shouldn't have put the team in that situation, and now I have to deal with my consequences."

But asked moments later if he planned to appeal, Smith indicated he would.

"I decided I will appeal, but I'm not sure what is the process of going through it yet," he said. "I still have to talk to the Nuggets, coach (George Karl) and everyone around me."