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On February 24, 1998, the Warriors defeated the Knicks, 87-82. They did it without Sprewell, who was suspended for choking coach P.J. Carlesimo on December 1 of that season.
At the same time, an independent arbitrator was taking final depositions and closing arguments in Sprewell's grievance against the Nut a week later, his one-year suspension was reduced to the remainder of that season.
Sprewell was traded to the Knicks prior to the 1998-99 season and had won all four meetings with his former team. But he had no answers in this one as he scored just seven points on 3-of-13 shooting.
"It's tough right now. I think it's a search more than anything," Sprewell said. "There's probably not one thing. There's probably a few things. I think right now we're just searching and trying to find some confidence as a team, some guys individually as well."
The only current Warriors on that 1997-98 team are big men Erick Dampier and Adonal Foyle, both of whom were in their first season with the club.
"We've made a lot of changes since then," Dampier said. "We traded off some people and fortunately I'm still here. It was two different teams, though. We've got more people on this team. Anybody on this team can step up and have a big night, compared to that team, on which we knew the two people who were going to play big for us."
Among the many newcomers is Richardson, who scored 14 of his 15 points in the first quarter, when Golden State scored 30 points and took the lead for good.
"I just wanted to go out there and help my teammates as much as I can, just get some points on the board and to try to get an early lead," Richardson said.
Larry Hughes scored 16 points and Dampier added 14 for Golden State, which allowed just 46 points over the last three periods and none in the final 3:20.
"We're feeling so confident now as a team from top to bottom," Hughes said. "We're comfortable with each other and we know we can win. Everything seems to be working for us right now. We've been executing and that makes the game seem easy."
The Knicks were booed off the court as they lost for the fifth time in their last six games. Allan Houston scored 17 points and Kurt Thomas added 15 for New York, which shot an awful 31 percent (25-of-81) from the floor and was outrebounded, 53-37.
"We're just in a bad way right now and we have to rebuild our team," Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "We have to start defensively, and I've always said it has to start with our best players. They have to lead us out of this."
Golden State won rather easily despite an awful game by scoring forward Antawn Jamison. Averaging 21.7 points per game, he managed just four on 2-of-13 shooting.
A 3-pointer by Hughes gave Golden State the lead for good at 18-15 with 5:34 remaining in the first quarter. Richardson scored 10 straight Warriors' points before a basket by Hughes opened a 30-25 lead after one quarter.
"It's tough to play in the Garden and the Knicks are a tough team to play against," Richardson said. "I wanted to get ahead, jump on them, and we did."
The Knicks managed just 13 points in the second quarter, when they trailed by as many as 13 points before settling for a 48-38 halftime deficit.
"Defensively, we did a nice job tonight," Warriors coach Dave Cowens said. "(Bob) Sura, (Chris) Mills and those guys, when they came in they really bothered the two scorers for them."
Hughes scored seven points in the third quarter, when New York got no closer than nine. Two free throws by Shandon Anderson made it 73-65 with 7:45 left, but Bob Sura answered with a pair from the line and rookie Troy Murphy made a basket and four foul shots to end any chance of a late rally.
"Every time we got close, we couldn't get a stop that we needed," Van Gundy said. "You can just sort of pick anything right now -- we're struggling with it."
Murphy scored nine of his 11 points in the final period. Chris Mills scored 12 and, whe 12 and Danny Fortson grabbed 14 rebounds for the Warriors, who improved to 2-1 on their four-game road trip.
Former Warrior Clarence Weatherspoon had 12 points and 12 boards for the Knicks, who had won 10 of the previous 11 meetings.
"We're at the point where we have to go back to practice and change our whole mentality," Houston said. "It's tough because you have so many opportunities to change it around. As a unit, we don't do it."