Happy Anniversary everyone.

Tomorrow it will be exactly one year since Isiah Thomas “earned” a four-year contract extension from the Knicks’ owner James Dolan. Remember, it was on March 12, 2007, with the Knicks momentarily in possession of the eighth seed in the East, that Dolan announced Thomas had met his standard for “significant and evident progress.” Since the comparison point was Larry Brown’s 23–59 debacle a year earlier, it is ironic to note that the Knicks have played 82 regular season games since the extension … and gone 22–60. Somehow, Thomas has fared even worse than Brown did in what, at the time, was considered the biggest train wreck in Knicks history. And if the Knicks don’t win five times in their final 19 games, he’ll set a new franchise mark for losses in a season as well.

Significant and evident regress might be a more apt description of Thomas’s performance, especially after he engineered yet another trade (the Zach Randolph deal) that brought in a questionable fit at huge expense. As our Martin Johnson pointed out yesterday, the Knicks looked far better losing in Wednesday’s overtime loss to Portland than they have at nearly any other time this year, even though signature Thomas acquisitions Eddy Curry, Jamal Crawford, Stephon Marbury, and Randolph didn’t play.

For those of you keeping a manila folder marked “Why Does This Man Still Have a Job?,” today’s milestone is yet one more item to clip and save. It’s unthinkable that anyone with the Knicks’ resources could preside over an 82-game reign worse than Brown’s; that the person in question remains employed is laughable.

But it teaches us another important lesson about the Knicks in the Dolan era: Never use the words “rock bottom.” Just when you think they’ve hit it, they find a way to do worse. If Thomas keeps his job, one wonders if we’ll look back on the current 18–45 season as the glory days.

On to the rankings:

1. Houston Rockets (42–20) (LW:5) I’ve had the Lakers, Celtics, and Pistons up here all year, and one of them will probably be back here in another week or two. But it’s now the middle of March, and the Rockets haven’t lost since January. With the Nets, Hawks, and Bobcats up next, Houston could be riding a 22-game win streak into Sunday’s showdown against the Lakers.

2. Boston Celtics (49–12) (3): Boston’s impressive smackdown of Detroit on Tuesday made clear who the team to beat in the East will be come May. The Celtics have quietly won eight straight, the past four by double digits.

3. Los Angeles Lakers (44–19) (1): Still love their prospects, but they’ve been seriously slacking on D of late. Sunday’s home loss to Sacramento — in which they gave up 71 first-half points — was a prime example.

4. Detroit Pistons (46–17) (2): This week showed the Pistons’ bad side — they melted down after Chauncey Billups’s fourth-quarter technical in Boston, and then Rip Hamilton was ejected at MSG. No team gets more bent out of shape by the zebras.

5. Utah Jazz (42–22) (6): This team still is capable of puzzling defensive lapses, but Saturday night’s steamrolling of Denver showed what the Jazz are capable of when firing on all cylinders.

6. San Antonio Spurs (43– 19) (4): People are looking at the Suns’ win over San Antonio in terms of what it means for Phoenix, but what about the implications for San Antonio? The Spurs’ secondary players are giving them nothing, and their season-ending schedule is brutal.

7. Orlando Magic (40–24) (7): They’re 8–3 since Stan Van Gundy called out Dwight Howard for his defense. Now the challenge is staying focused for the next month, since they’re pretty much locked into East’s no. 3 seed.

8. New Orleans Hornets (42–20) (9): Injuries to David West and Bonzi Wells have led to spotty play of late, but they may have found a jewel on the bench in rookie Julian Wright — his 20 points helped the Hornets dismantle the Nets on Friday.

9. Golden State Warriors (39–23) (12): The Warriors scored 104 points in beating Orlando on Friday … and it was their lowest point total in 26 games. The win also completed a successful 3–1 Eastern tour for Golden State.

10. Dallas Mavericks (40– 23) (8): The Mavs are focused on the dip in Josh Howard’s scoring since the Jason Kidd trade, but that strikes me as random, short-term noise. Of far greater concern is the team’s soft D in losing three straight games last week.

11. Toronto Raptors (34– 28) (10): I still say this team is the sleeper in the East, but with Chris Bosh out with a sore knee and a five-game Western trip looming, they may not be able show it for a while.

12. Denver Nuggets (37–25) (11): Just when you think they’ve got things turned around, they get annihilated in Utah. But the return of Chucky Atkins should improve the deficient outside shooting that’s been hampering them all year.

13. Philadelphia 76ers (30–33) (15): Before you call me crazy for ranking them this high, check out their 16–9 mark in their past 25 games, or the wins by 26, 34, and 22 points last week.

14. Phoenix Suns (41–22) (14): The Suns have a fairly soft five-game stretch to get their act together before an absolutely brutal finishing kick. If they don’t win at least three of the five, they could be lottery-bound.

15. Cleveland Cavaliers (36–27) (13): LeBron James is unbelievably good. And with Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Sasha Pavlovic, and Daniel Gibson all injured, his teammates are unbelievably bad.

16. Washington Wizards (30–32) (16): The injury-riddled Wiz get the next four at home; they better enjoy it, because their month ends with seven road games, compared to just one in the Phone Booth — and that lone home game is against the Pistons.

17. Portland Trail Blazers (33–30) (17): The Blazers started a five-game Eastern swing by eking out wins over the lowly Bucks and Knicks. While that’s better than losing, they haven’t had a double-figure win in nearly two months.

18. Chicago Bulls (25–38) (21): Eye-opening moment in Thursday’s win over Cavs was rookie Joakim Noah absolutely destroying former starter Ben Wallace on the glass. Noah had 20 boards, 10 offensive; most came at Big Ben’s expense.

19. Sacramento Kings (28–35) (19): Winning in the Lakers’ house was impressive, but this team still has the look of a train going off the rails. Even in Sunday’s victory, Ron Artest’s benching for the final 16 minutes raised eyebrows.

20. Atlanta Hawks (26– 36) (19): Atlanta stopped a steady descent with Saturday’s “doubleheader” sweep of Miami, putting them a half-game ahead of Nets for the East’s final playoff spot. Their remaining schedule is quite soft, too.

21. Indiana Pacers (24–39) (22): The Pacers lost all three games this week and moved up a spot — you gotta love the East. Indy may have the easiest finishing schedule of any Eastern pretender, so don’t count them out of the playoff chase just yet.

22. Charlotte Bobcats (24–39) (26): Don’t sleep on these guys either — they’ve won five straight, including wins over Golden State, Toronto, and Washington. But a daunting schedule, with nine of the next 11 on the road, stands in their way.

23. New Jersey Nets (26– 37) (20): Things don’t get much easier after the Misery Tour through the Southwest Division ends: The Nets get the Cavs and Jazz back at the Swamp this week.

24. Milwaukee Bucks (23– 40) (24): A silver lining of injury to rookie forward Yi Jianlian is that Charlie Villanueva is getting some much-needed burn and playing well, with 32- and 25-point games this week.

25. New York Knicks (18– 45) (25): A tip of the hat is due to Nate Robinson for his extraordinary 45-point effort against the Blazers, even if it ultimately couldn’t produce a victory for the ‘Bockers.

26. Los Angeles Clippers (20–41) (23): There’s still a possibility we’ll see Elton Brand and/or Shaun Livingston in uniform before the season ends, but there’s not exactly a lot of pressure for them to return given the Clips’ record.

27. Minnesota Timberwolves (14–48) (27): The lowly T’wolves managed to squeeze out a couple of road wins to improve to an almost-respectable 9–14 over their past 23 games.

28. Memphis Grizzlies (15–47) (30): The Grizzlies have one win since February 12: The Nets’ come-from-ahead, playoff-hope-destroying loss in Memphis on Wednesday.

29. Seattle SuperSonics (16–47) (28): Kevin Durant has a lot of rough edges to work on, but one area where he’s genuinely improved is his defense. The Kid was a sieve to start the year, but now he’s using his length to get stops.

30. Miami Heat (11–50) (29): Even by Miami’s standards, it was a rough weekend: They lost twice in a day and then lost their best player, Dwyane Wade, for the rest of the season.

jhollinger@nysun.com