Douglas leads Knicks to win over Wizards
New York Knicks forward Wilson Chandler (21) dunks the basketball over Washington Wizards center JaVale McGee (34) during the first half at Madison Square Garden. (Nov. 5, 2010) Credit: Newsday / Christopher Pasatieri
Toney Douglas welcomes the reputation. He wants opposing guards to know that when they face the Knicks, they'll have to deal with him.
"Yeah, they're going to have to bring it,'' Douglas said after recording five of his team's 11 steals along with 19 points and 10 rebounds in a 112-91 win over the Wizards Friday night at the Garden.
"They're going to have to bring it every night,'' Douglas said. "I hold myself accountable to bring it every night.''
Douglas, the 2008-09 ACC defensive player of the year in his senior season at Florida State, brought it for a second straight night - and did so against No. 1 overall pick John Wall. A night earlier, he combined with Raymond Felton to go head-to-head with last season's rookie of the year, Derrick Rose, in an impressive win over the Bulls.
"Raymond's tough and smart,'' Mike D'Antoni said. "And Toney's all over the place.''
And the Knicks have now won consecutive games on back-to-back nights and take a 3-2 start into Sunday's matinee against the 76ers.
After losing their opener last season, the Knicks never reached .500. They hadn't been over .500 since Nov. 22, 2008, when they got to 7-6 by beating the Wizards.
"We're playing well,'' Amar'e Stoudemire said. "We really are.''
In the team's first Garden appearance since an asbestos scare postponed Tuesday's game against the Orlando Magic, the Knicks had balanced scoring. Six players finished in double figures and all 10 players who entered the game scored.
Stoudemire had 18 points, Danilo Gallinari added 16 and Wilson Chandler scored 14 points, including an electrifying reverse dunk over 7-foot center JaVale McGee late in the second quarter.
Felton had 13 points and 10 assists and Ronny Turiaf added 10 points.
The Knicks led by as many as 13 points through the first three quarters as their hot shooting from Thursday's 120-112 win over the Bulls carried over. They finished the game 12-for-29 from three-point range after going 16-for-24 from outside the arc against the Bulls.
Stoudemire had another relatively quiet offensive game, but he was much more efficient on this night with 6-for-11 shooting, compared to his 5-for-21 performance against the Bulls. He also had four of the Knicks' 11 blocked shots. They lead the NBA with 8.4 blocks per game.
"We're scrapping up, we're really, really scrapping up,'' Stoudemire said. "We take it upon ourselves to take on the challenge of guarding players, playing team defense, helping one another. It is really paying off for us.''
In his Garden debut, Wall had 13 points and seven assists with nine turnovers in 34:45 for the Wizards. The rookie entered the game with gaudy numbers in his first three games - 23.7 points, 10.3 assists and 4.0 steals per game - but had to work extra hard against the defense of Felton and Douglas.
Andray Blatche had 22 points and Gilbert Arenas added 18 in his season debut for the Wizards. It was his first appearance in an NBA regular-season game since Jan. 5, before he was suspended by commissioner David Stern for the remainder of the 2009-10 season for bringing guns into the team locker room.
With Wall on the bench, Arenas caught fire early in the fourth quarter, scoring nine straight points on two three-pointers and a three-point play, bringing the Wizards within 88-82 with 9:08 left in the game. He hit another three shortly thereafter to make it 94-88.
Stoudemire then finished a three-point play and Gallinari drilled a straightaway three-pointer to make it 100-88.
