By calling himself a future All-Star, saying he was as good as Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston, and all but begging for the opportunity to someday guard Kobe Bryant, the Knicks' Lavor Postell created a bit of an uproar before last night's game.

Chris Broussard writes that his teammates, particularly Sprewell, Houston and Mark Jackson, ridiculed him mercilessly on the team bus. MSG Network devoted a pregame segment to the bombastic comments he made Monday, and Postell, finding no humor in the Knicks' ribbing, was unusually despondent before taking the court for warm-ups.

But over the next three hours, the jokes turned to cheers, the mockery became respect, and Postell's image went from that of a young knucklehead to a one-game hero with potential.

Doubling his previous career best and hitting a clutch 3-pointer in the final moments, Postell scored a game-high 20 points in 22 minutes to help lead the Knicks to an 89-82 victory over the playoff-bound Detroit Pistons at the Palace.

"I made a statement in the papers and I backed it up," said Postell, 24, who made his comments after shooting 1 for 7 in Monday's loss to Denver. "That's in the past. It was a mistake. I shouldn't have done that. But this is a great group of guys. They made fun of me, but they still supported me. They were like, `Young fella, don't make statements like that because it'll come back to haunt you.' I meant what I said. But I'll never do it again."

The victory and Postell's performance created a sense of joy in a Knicks locker room that has often been dismal after games this season. Sprewell, one of Postell's closest friends on the team, joked about moving out of the way for the reporters surrounding Postell's locker, and Jackson introduced Postell at his impromptu news conference by saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Willie Namath."

"I've been playing this game since third grade," he said. "I'm good at this. I'm here for a reason. I got an opportunity and I took advantage of it."