Wednesday's contest at Madison Square Garden was billed as the game that the player traded by the Bulls to New York would have his vengeance against his old team.  

It was, as former Bull Jamal Crawford led the charge at the start of the final period to erase an 8-point deficit and give New York the lead for good.  

These are two clubs with a number of players who recently played on the other?s team, none bigger than Knicks? center Eddy Curry.  But despite proclamations that he would be back to face the team that dealt him, Curry came out in street clothes after making a game-time decision to rest his sore calf another game.

Playing their second game in two nights, the Bulls may have wilted down the stretch.  The Knicks outscored the Bulls 35-19 in the fourth quarter after being solidly outplayed for the previous three.  The Bulls maintained a consistent edge of 7-12 points throughout the night with intense defense and good shots generated by their patient offense.

Besides fatigue setting in on the Bulls squad, the Knicks may have had the good fortune of two other turning points:  Coach Larry Brown?s decision to replace turnover-happy Malik Rose and Trevor Ariza?s power dunk to tie the game at 82 off the dish-back from Crawford on a fast break.  

Crawford had 28 points, Stephon Marbury had 18 points and 8 assists, and Channing Frye had 21 points and 8 rebounds, continuing his rookie surge.  Fellow rookie Nate Robinson joined Frye in the starting lineup and added 14 points.  

Chicago was led by Ben Gordon's 28 points, including 7-11 from the three-point line, and Andres Nocioni?s 19 points.  Michael Sweetney had 10 points and 4 rebounds in his return to the Garden.  Tyson Chandler, Curry?s friend and fellow lottery pick, fouled out with 0 points and 5 rebounds in 18 minutes of play.  This off-season, the Bulls rewarded Chandler with a long-term deal before trading Curry and Antonio Davis to New York for Sweetney, Tim Thomas and Jermaine Jackson.

Now Brown will confront the eternal quandary facing all coaches of multi-talented but inconsistent performers such as Crawford:  Getting them to ?play that way? and reach their stand-out potential on a regular basis.

Eddy Curry didn't dress for Wednesday's game against his former club, the Chicago Bulls.

He is nursing a hurt calf.

Curry had hoped to be able to play against the Bulls, with whom he played his first four seasons.

Bulls guard Ben Gordon was caught off guard Tuesday by an Internet report that said he's unhappy with his role and wants to become a starter.

''I don't know what that was,'' Gordon said before the Bulls played the Orlando Magic on Tuesday at the United Center. ''It didn't come from me. I don't know nothing about it.''

With Tim Thomas on his way out of Chicago, the idea of him returning to the Knicks was brought up at yesterday's practice. Sound far-fetched?

Maybe not. The Knicks are starving for a starting small forward, and Larry Brown acknowledged yesterday that if Thomas were still on the Knicks, he would have been playing substantial minutes instead of sitting on the bench as he has been doing in Chicago.

"He'd be playing a lot of minutes here," Brown said.

Bulls general manager John Paxson announced Monday that Thomas has likely played his last game for the Bulls and he plans to trade him.

Paxson said it was against league rules to trade Thomas back for Davis, but the Knicks do have a perfect match in Penny Hardaway. They make roughly the same money ($14 million) and are in the last year of their contracts. Hardaway has barely played this season -- due to tendinitis in his right knee and because he doesn't fit into Brown's scheme.

The fighter in Scott Skiles came out swinging after Larry Brown was quoted saying in October that he was telling things to Eddy Curry "that I think he hadn't heard before."
Considering the controversy surrounding the Curry trade and the animosity that has always existed between the Knicks and Chicago Bulls, Skiles believed that Brown was insulting his coaching.

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure Larry invented the game," was Skiles' response. "That's the second direct shot he's taken. He also said that once he got the Chicago out of (ex-Piston) Ronald Dupree, he'd be able to do something."

In a recent telephone interview, Skiles dismissed the notion that he and Brown are at odds and claimed he was just trying to tweak the Hall of Fame coach that he respects and has known for years.

"It wasn't a big deal," Skiles said. "I think Larry is a great coach. We have mutual friends and I have a great amount of respect for him."

Eddy Curry and Antonio Davis, who went to New York in the trade that brought Michael Sweetney to Chicago, have not yet settled in their new home.

Eddy Curry is still sidelined with a strained calf muscle, and watched in street clothes as his team got soundly defeated in Miami.  He plans to play Wednesday at Madison Square Garden versus the Bulls.  

"I'm just ready to play," Curry said. "I feel like a lot of the pain I had is gone. Whether it's Chicago or Charlotte, anybody, I'm ready to play Wednesday."

Antonio Davis may lose his spot in the lineup when Curry returns.  The hot rookie Channing Frye has made his way into the starting five so Davis may head to the bench with Curry back.

Regarding the possibility of returning to Chicago, Davis said, "I got traded. That's all I know. The bottom line is I'm in New York. I can't worry about what was supposed to happen, what could have happened, what should have happened."

The Bulls' back-to-back wins in Texas pleased the club and were a measure of the team's progress.

Chicago has struggled with the Rockets in recent history but this time weathered Yao's 30 points in a 94-89 victory at the Toyota Center.

Ben Gordon, per usual, lifted his team with 18 points off the bench.  Veteran reserve Othella Harrington came up with a big contribution of 16.

Tyson Chandler's health problems are a concern.  He is experiencing fatigue and will be watched closely.

"I knew something wasn't right," Chandler said. "I was feeling like I couldn't get my wind."

The status of Knicks' center Eddy Curry remains uncertain but the big man is trying to get back in time to face his old team at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night.  Curry is nursing a sore calf muscle.

Curry sounded optimistic.

"I'm feeling confident about it," he said before the Knicks were trounced in Miami.  "I'll try to loosen it up in practice tomorrow and look forward to trying to play Wednesday."

Shaquille O'Neal, also out with an injury, commented on Curry's future:  "He plays like a real big man," O'Neal said. "He has a lot of work, a lot of guys to go up against him, before he can get the title of dominant. He's a good, solid, double-respectable big man."

Also, the former agent for Adrian Griffin, who just signed with the Mavericks, said the Knicks had some light interest in the Seton Hall product.  Frank Catapano said that before he was fired, the Knicks had contacted him indirectly about picking up Griffin.

After five straight games on the Bulls' inactive list, veteran forward Tim Thomas has been moved to the really inactive list.

Operations chief John Paxson announced Monday that he and Thomas have reached a mutual understanding in which Thomas no longer will be an active member of the team but will remain on the roster for the time being.

Thomas, 28, won't be released but will be allowed to stay with his family in the New York area while Paxson explores trade possibilities.

''Tim has made some comments about being here, and I have mentioned that he is at a different stage of his professional career than most of our guys,'' Paxson said. ''He wants to play, and right now we're in a position where that's probably not going to happen here.

''I don't want to put Tim and my coach in a position where every day they have to answer the question of when he's coming off the inactive list and why he's not playing.''

After being a starter for most of his career, Thomas appeared in three of the Bulls' 11 games, averaging 4.3 points in 10.7 minutes. A week ago, coach Scott Skiles was asked if Thomas could help the team at some point this season, and Skiles replied, ''I don't know.''

Before the start of the team's recent West Coast trip, Thomas complained about his lack of playing time, saying the team would be better off trading him if he wasn't going to play. Essentially, the Bulls agreed Monday.

''We're going to try to accommodate him,'' Paxson said. ''But we're going to do what we have to do as an organization. We're not going to do anything that's going to set us back.''

Eddy Curry is expected to miss his third-straight game tonight because of his injured calf. "He's not going to play against Miami," Brown said. "He still has discomfort. We don't want to rush him back."

Curry said he is hopeful to be ready to play against his ex-team, the Bulls, in Chicago on Wednesday. Brown didn't sound that optimistic.