Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni took Nate Robinson off the bench on Friday night and received 41 points.

Robinson, who was benched for 14 straight games, helped New York defeat Atlanta in overtime by scoring 21 of the team's final 25 points.

"He's playing," D'Antoni said of his change of heart. "I'm not going to grasp straws. Once you start to go down that road, I'm going to go down that road for a while.

"We're going with him."

The coach said he went to Robinson to help provide an offensive spark.

"We needed an offensive spark because I thought we were sputtering the last four or five games," D'Antoni said. "It seemed like we were slipping.

"I knew he could give us that. I just hope that the intensity, the level of concentration on defense, all of that stays the same. If it does, then he becomes a real good player for us and that's what we need."