Hurting Carmelo leads blowout of Magic

Carmelo Anthony winced and grimaced because of his strained right groin, but also smiled and bounced around as if pain free as he and the Knicks were putting a hurting on the Magic.

Anthony had 25 points in one of his best all-around games of the season last night, providing an emotional lift that sparked the undermanned Knicks to an improbably lopsided 108-86 victory at the Garden.

"It definitely fires everybody up to see your star player sacrificing his body and playing defense and doing all the little things, the intangible things," Baron Davis said. "It's definitely an inspiration to the guys."

For the second straight game, the Knicks were minus Amar'e Stoudemire (bulging disc in his back and Jeremy Lin (sore knee). Stoudemire is out 2-4 weeks, but two games into his rehab the Knicks seem to be doing fine. They're getting contributions from everyone. Their defense remains solid and Anthony, despite his condition, looks like his old self.

Anthony carried the Knicks (26-25) for stretches, scoring 12 points in the third, as they won for the third straight time and improved to 8-1 under Mike Woodson. The Knicks also are above .500 for the first time since they were 6-5 on Jan. 13.

"We are really locked in and focused on what we need to focus on, which is the defensive end," Anthony said. "We've been tremendous on that end of the court."

The Knicks moved 2½ games ahead of the Bucks for the East's last playoff spot. They blew it open with a 21-0 run in the third and led by 39 against the NBA's fourth-best defense. "We were awful," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "We were terrible."

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Rookie Iman Shumpert matched Anthony with a career-high 25 points. Steve Novak had 16 off the bench, 13 as the Knicks built a 16-point halftime lead.

Anthony shot 9-for-15 and had six assists and five rebounds in 26 minutes. He said he was feeling "a little bit" sore. The blowout allowed him to get some rest, and whenever he left the game, he rode an exercise bike to keep his groin loose.

"I was trying not to even think about it," Anthony said, "especially in the first half. I was trying not to think about it in the third quarter. When I got going, I tried to block it out of my mind. When I sat on the bench, that's when I really felt it a little bit."

Anthony said he probably would have sat earlier in the season. But with the Knicks beat up and each game so important, he didn't want to be a spectator. In the third, he made his first three shots, two of them threes. He hadn't hit a three in five games.

"Times like this are always fun times, right before the playoffs, guys having to step up their games," Anthony said. "The playoffs is coming, games like tonight, games like Milwaukee, we're going to have a lot more of those games coming down the stretch. Why not want to play those type of basketball games?"

The Knicks held the Magic to 12 second-quarter points and limited All-Star center Dwight Howard to 12, about nine below his average. They shot 50.6 percent (43-for-85) and showed no signs of being depleted.

"It was just a gritty win," Davis said. "We're banged up. Melo's banged up. He fought hard. He got some open looks. He made it through and had a great game."