NEW YORK -- A few hours before tipoff, Jeff Hornacek said his players would be looking for "redemption" in their home opener Saturday after an ugly loss to start the season.

Well, redemption came in many forms for New York on Saturday night.

Midway through the third, it was Kristaps Porzingis fully extending his 7-foot-3 frame for a transition dunk en route to a game-high 21 points.

A little over a minute later, it was Derrick Rose

hitting Mike Conley with the kind of crossover that any New Yorker could appreciate.

Throughout the night, it was Joakim Noah handing out timely assists (7) and grabbing rebounds (10), and Courtney Lee (16 points) scoring all over the floor.

All of it added up to a 111-104 win over Memphis, a much more palatable result for the home crowd than the 29-point loss to Cleveland earlier in the week.

"We were a completely different team tonight," Carmelo Anthony said afterward.

And the numbers proved Anthony's point.

New York had 24 assists on 40 made shots and 12 turnovers against Memphis. In Tuesday's loss to Cleveland, they had only 17 assists on 32 makes and 18 turnovers.

"We looked like we knew what we were doing more often tonight," Hornacek said afterward.

On an encouraging night all around for the organization, maybe the most promising moment came about two hours after the final buzzer.

In the home team's locker room, a reporter asked Anthony about his fourth quarter, which included only two shot attempts.

"Tonight, the focus was on other guys. Derrick had it going, Kristaps had it going. And when it came to me, it came to me," he said.

In years past, the Knicks might have relied too much on Anthony late in games like Saturday's. They certainly went to him Saturday (he made a critical layup and drew a foul to extend the Knicks' lead with 7:30 to play). But they also went to Porzingis, Rose, Noah and Justin Holiday to help seal the win.

Anthony, who ended up with 20 points on 5-for-15 shooting, six rebounds and five assists, was just fine with sharing the shots -- and the spotlight.

"You don't see me complaining about it. You didn't see me out there making a face," Anthony said. "[It's] something that I embrace. I look forward to just being out there with guys who can control the game and make plays, and when it's my time, it's my time."

He added: "We know that the ball doesn't have to be in my hand every single time down the court for us to make things happen. There will come a time where that has to happen, but right now, we're just trying to get comfortable with one another and play off of each other and guys do what they do best."

Coming into the season, some questioned how Anthony would fit with Rose, another high-usage player, and what it all meant for Porzingis' development. We're only through two games of an 82-game season, so those might still turn out to be legitimate concerns for New York. (Especially if the club starts losing.) But the way things unfolded Saturday -- and the way Anthony processed a perceived lack of touches late in the game -- seemed to be a promising sign for the Knicks.