The Wests Tigers insist they didn't think about trying to avoid their first wooden spoon since becoming a merged club before beating Newcastle 33-12 on Sunday.
The Knights, meanwhile, tried to use the chance to move away from the bottom of the NRL ladder as motivation at McDonald Jones Stadium.
It didn't work, as coach Nathan Brown labelled the performance the worst of their year.
The Tigers had their best half of football since round one last year, when they went to the break leading 20-0 as their attack finally clicked.
Luke Brooks and Tuimoala Lolohea linked directly in the lead up to three tries, while Moses Suli had the best game of his young career.
NSW State of Origin prop Aaron Woods was also in form with four offloads and 161m in a dominant display.
"We've probably been building to that for a while," coach Nathan Cleary said.
"I was pretty confident in us putting a good performance together, it's been coming. Now the trick is to keep it coming."
The win avoided a club record eighth-straight loss, and lifted them two points above the Knights at the bottom of the ladder with a bye in hand.
But Woods said the talk of a battle to avoid the spoon - as it had been billed in an NRL email to fans - hadn't been discussed.
"It's disappointing to hear that," Woods said.
"It's out of our hands, we can't control what people want to say."
Suli, 19, busted through seven tackles and had one try assist at left centre as Tigers fans got their best glimpse of the future of the club.
And after starring early, Brooks showed a cool head under pressure to ice the game for the Tigers after the Knights fought back to 24-12 with 15 minutes to play.
After Newcastle scored twice through Lachlan Fitzgibbon and Joe Wardle in the 62nd and 66th minutes, Brooks slotted a field goal from in front and then scored the last try of the match on the back of a Woods offload.
Meanwhile the Knights completed at just 68 per cent as halfback Trent Hodkinson lacked impact on return from reserve grade and Nathan Ross had several fumbles in his second game at fullback.
"It was the first time in 18 months we've been favourites and we did build it up to be a big game, because it was an important game," Brown said.
"Whether that made people focus on the result a bit more - maybe that played a part."
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