It wouldn’t be New York if its fans and media didn’t often overreact to each game that any professional team plays in New York. That response just comes with the territory when rooting for or discussing teams in the New York City area.

Sure enough, to the degree that the Giants were being discussed as part of the National Football League elite after a dominant 5-0 start, was the extent to which many in the New York area were asking what was wrong with the Giants and how New York could let its entire season slip away after a subsequent four-game slide.

No doubt, the questions surrounding the problems that the Giants still need to fix this season were, and still are, legitimate. And, if the Giants don’t soon rectify a lot of the issues that were exposed during their aforementioned four-game losing streak, it’s true, Big Blue’s goal of reaching the playoffs could be in serious jeopardy.

But, for those who were spewing all of the doom and gloom talk about the Giants’ playoff possibilities, many going so far as to say that the Giants’ fourth straight loss ended their season, take a look at the current NFC standings after what happened on Sunday, as the Giants tried to regroup during their bye week.

Sure, New York had slipped from 5-0 to 5-4, and from first place to third place in the NFC East.

Yet, simply by not playing, the Giants moved back into a tie for second place with the 5-4 Philadelphia Eagles (who were beaten in San Diego on Sunday), and are now just one game behind the 6-3 Dallas Cowboys, the NFC East leaders, who lost at Green Bay this week.

As for the NFC wild-card race, the Giants and Eagles are not only tied for the wild-card lead with each other, but also with the 5-4 Atlanta Falcons (losers at Carolina on Sunday) and the 5-4 Green Bay Packers. Carolina, San Francisco, and Chicago are each a game back, at 4-5.

For all of this past week’s chatter about the Giants’ season being over, New York still very much controls its own destiny as long as it can pull everything together and play better.

The Giants host Atlanta next week, while having other home dates with Dallas, Philadelphia, and Carolina in December. And, the Giants are done with both the Cowboys and Eagles on the road.

The bottom line is that while the Giants have to correct a lot of what plagued them while losing four games in a row, and they still have much work to do in order to reach the playoffs this year, they’re very far from the fate many had prematurely predicted for them (if any Giants are Mark Twain fans, they can certainly relate).

As evidenced while the Giants rested this week, no one else in the NFC East seems to be running away with their division, and even less so in the NFC wild-card picture.

So, at least for now Giant fans, view the remaining Giant games in this season the same way your team plans on approaching them. It may sound clichéd, but forget about the recent past and take the rest of the season one game at a time.

Because it doesn’t appear that anything regarding where the Giants are headed this season, one way or the other, will be determined any time soon.

“He wants to play and the decision from our medical staff and my self was to stay home,” explained Minaya. Wright was hit by a Matt Cain fastball Saturday and has the usual headaches associated with a concussion.  The Mets are being cautious about Wright, their team leader, who missed one game all season and don’t want a recurrence of the Ryan Church concussion episode of last season.

Minaya has had his share of bad news all season. The injuries to his starting lineup and pitching staff have been a reason why the Mets are not in contention, and now Wright, who could miss the entire season pending on how long the recuperation takes place. “Based on the recommendations of our doctors and the specialist,” said Minaya when asked why Wright was put on the DL

The mood in the Mets clubhouse Saturday was all about the concern for Wright. It remained that way before and after the game Sunday. Luis Castillo provided the Mets with maybe the longest home run at Citi Field in a 3-2 win. With two outs in the fifth inning he hit a Jonathan Sanchez pitch to the second deck in left field, his first home run since May of 2008.

And Mike Pelfrey, perhaps is back on the right track as he provided the Mets with his best pitching effort of the season. He gave up two runs on five hits in 7/2-3 innings and struck out eight. He has allowed only four runs in three starts against the Giants but only has one win to show for it.

Francisco Rodriquez (3-4) pitched a perfect ninth inning out of the pen and got the win.  Murphy, with his first career walk-off winning hit, was the hero for now. But the Mets clubhouse had all their thoughts with Wright.

“Every time you get a W it’s a good feeling,” said Murphy, “but we all have our thoughts with David.” Jeff Francoeur opened the ninth with single deep in the hole off losing pitcher Sergio Romo (3-2) and scored on the Murphy hit after Fernando Tatis sacrificed him to second.

It was that rare type of win for the Mets who took their second game in the four-game series that concludes Monday evening.

e-mail Rich Mancuso:  Ring786@aol.com

Larry Hughes, who started at shooting guard, led the team with 23 points. An equally impressive story was the performance of Danilo “The Rooster” Gallinari, who scored a career-high 17 points. Playing for 22 minutes, Gallinari without a doubt took on the injured Nate Robinson’s (sprained ankle) role as the team’s sparkplug last night.

“He played great. We know he is a great shooter and that is the biggest thing,” D’Antoni said in his post-game conference. “He also knows how to play. When he doesn’t make a good play or something bad happens it is usually because of a little lack of strength or lack of physical presence. It will come with maturity, comes when he gets completely over his back, but he was really good tonight.”

The Knicks’ performance in the first quarter was uninspiring to say the least. Taking careless shots (Chris Duhon needs to stop taking as many three-pointers), playing awful defense, and not grabbing easy rebounds is what has plagued New York the entire season. The first quarter was an absolute microcosm of the 2008-2009 Knicks season. Most of the second quarter was like that, too. However, New York flipped a switch with about five minutes left in the first half and from there on out, the Orange and Blue was a force to be reckoned with.

With 3.6 seconds left in the first half, Wilson Chandler was fouled and hit both free throws to give the Knicks a 51-49 lead going into halftime. Whatever D’Antoni said in the locker room during halftime, whatever the General told his troops, clearly worked as the Knicks came back with a bang in the third quarter. The crowd was into it for the rest of the game as the Knicks held on for a solid win.

Throughout the third quarter and for most of the fourth, New York just seemed to dominate the Hawks. It was as if a different team was on the court as opposed to the one who stunk up the first quarter. Gallinari was nailing threes left and right (finishing with 4-for-5 from behind the arc) and simply everyone was getting into the act. An impressive six Knicks scored points in double-digits, including every starter. Chandler had 18, Al Harrington had the second-highest with 20 points (and 10 boards for a double-double), Duhon netted 14, and David Lee scored 13 (to go along with his 14 rebounds for a very quiet double-double).

Hughes, who scored the game’s first basket, finally feels like he’s gelling with the team and maybe more importantly is starting to feel healthy again. “I feel pretty good now. I am putting in the extra work; I am making sure that I am in the weight room and making sure my legs are holding up.”

On the Hawks’ side, their leading scorer was Al Horford with 20 points and 13 boards for the double-double. Coincidentally, they also had six players finish in double-digit scoring. Josh Smith had 16, Marvin Wiliams had 17, Mike Bibby netted 11, Joe Johnson scored 18, and Flip Murray scored 10 points off the bench. I’m not sure what Atlanta could have done to get back into this game after it started getting out of reach, but they couldn’t keep up with the Knicks’ second half energy.

“We shut it down, that’s exactly what we did,” Atlanta Head Coach Mike Woodson said. “I thought we came out to play and the first quarter was excellent. Then in the second and third quarters once we got down, it was just too late. We just got comfortable and let them get going and [the Knicks] are a shot-making team that scores a lot of points here in the Garden. Once they got going we couldn’t stop them.”

Hopefully plenty more opposing head coaches will be uttering that last sentence in the coming weeks. Surprisingly, the defense had 12 steals. The second-half Knicks were a different team than the first-half chumps. However, D’Antoni, smartly, isn’t getting overly excited about anything yet.

“Once we see this in ten straight games, then maybe we’ve got things solved,” the Head Coach said.

His players really need to heed his advice. Don’t get cocky yet. Be confident. While the Knickerbockers are still very much in the playoff picture (with a record now of 25-35), the last thing the Garden Faithful wants to see are big heads. Put in the work and grind it out during practice, listen to the wisdom of General D’Antoni, and replicate the kind of basketball that was on display during the second half. That’s all Knicks fans can ask for.