Banged-up Knicks grind out win over Pacers
Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert shoots over the Knicks' Danilo Gallinari, of Italy, as Knicks' Wilson Chandler watches during the first half, Sunday. (Jan. 2, 2011) Credit: AP
The Knicks ground out a critical win, but the casualties - Danilo Gallinari, Ronny Turiaf and Toney Douglas - piled up in a 98-92 win over the Pacers at the Garden Sunday.
Though the calendar just flipped to January, Mike D'Antoni considered this one of the first must-win efforts of the season with regard to the playoff chase, so it had an April kind of importance.
"I think it matters a lot; it's worth two games," D'Antoni said of beating the seventh-place Pacers (14-18), who entered the game 31/2 games behind the sixth-place Knicks (19-14) in the conference standings. "You can't wait until March or April to turn it on; you've got to do it now."
Amar'e Stoudemire, again plagued with early foul trouble and battling a gantlet of Pacers bigs - including seldom-used Jeff Foster, who surprisingly got the start over Roy Hibbert - didn't have a dominant game but still led the way with 26 points. He provided his usual fourth-quarter leadership, contributing nine points to help put the game away and snap a two-game losing streak.
Danny Granger led the Pacers with 25 points and 17 rebounds and Darren Collison had 22 points and six assists.
Gallinari scored 19 points but left the game in the fourth quarter with what later was diagnosed as a sprained left knee. He said trainers told him it is a Grade 1 sprain, the least severe. He will have an MRI Monday to further examine the injury and determine how much time, if any, he will miss.
The injury occurred with 6:14 left when Pacers guard Brandon Rush fell on a drive and landed against Gallinari's knee, which gave way. Gallinari was helped off the court but was walking in the locker room after the game. He said he felt "discomfort" at that point and that the pain had subsided. "I stretched it a little bit," he said. "There's nothing major, so I'll be fine."
Gallinari did not rule out playing Tuesday night against the Spurs, but it's common for a player to have more pain and swelling the following day.
"They don't think there's any type of damage other than just a week, two days," D'Antoni said. "You don't know. It's a sprain."
Turiaf, who had six of the Knicks' season-high 12 blocked shots along with 10 rebounds, had his shoulder temporarily pop out late in the game. Turiaf's biggest block came when he rejected a drive by Collison with 30.5 seconds left and the Knicks protecting a 97-92 lead.
Turiaf played only six minutes in Thursday's loss in Orlando and brought a heavy dose of energy Sunday in 27:54. "I got beat a couple of times, but those are quick guards," Turiaf said of his block party. "But they don't know that I'm going to have to meet them; we have a little date at the rim."
Then there was Douglas, who aggravated his sprained right shoulder down the stretch. But he finished the game and fed Stoudemire for a 17-footer with 35.9 seconds left to make it 97-92.
And then there was Wilson Chandler (10 points), who was limping after the game.
Douglas, who is aware of the talk that the Knicks are shopping for a backup point guard, had one of his best games in a while. He set a tone with his defensive pressure against Collison and, perhaps more importantly for him, showed he can run the offense while Raymond Felton is on the bench. Douglas had 12 points and seven assists in 28:43.
"It was one of those games," D'Antoni said, "we had to grind it out."
