The New York Knicks won their fifth straight game on Wednesday night, defeating the Boston Celtics 116-92 at TD Garden. The streak has put them at 26-40, the closest they’ve been to .500 since a Feb. 22 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. The Knicks moved to within three games of those Hawks for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with the victory.

A win is a win, but it’s worth noting that the Knicks haven’t faced the toughest competition during their weeklong streak. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who they topped to end a seven-game losing skid on March 5, are the only club among the five that have a winning record.

"Regardless of who we play, we are just taking it one game at a time," Carmelo Anthony said after the win in Boston. "These are the teams we have to play on the schedule, we don’t control that. The only thing we can control is whether we win or not.”

Anthony pointed to the team’s 118-106 win over the Timberwolves as a turning point. The Knicks have an average margin of victory of 16.6 points during the five-game streak.

"[Our] confidence and mindset right now is a lot different than it was before," Anthony said. "When you’re losing games, you trying to search to figure out what’s going on, what’s happening. Nobody really knows the reason, exactly what’s the reason you’re losing games. Now guys are just playing ball. It took that one game in Minnesota to get us back to playing the way we want to."

Anthony has played well over the five-game surge, averaging 28.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and two steals per game, but those numbers are down what he was producing during New York’s recent seven-game slid -- 32 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists on 48.2 percent shooting.

"Throughout the season you have your ups-and-downs," explained Anthony. “We've had more downs than ups this season, but right now it seems like we are playing great basketball. On the defensive end, guys are trustworthy and we are helping each other out. Offensively, everything seems to be in sync."

Anthony spoke with the media just minutes before news broke that the Knicks had agreed to terms with Phil Jackson to run the front office. Anthony maintained that while players can’t avoid the endless rumors and reports that surround them, they let those in charge make the decisions.

"We don’t really look at that as a distraction," he explained. "We hear a lot and we read it, we see it, there’s no way to get away from it. There’s no way to hide from it. We're just focused on playing basketball. We leave that to Mr. Dolan, Steve Mills and those guys to do their job and we do ours. That’s not something for us to worry about."