Knicks hang on to defeat Bobcats
Amare Stoudemire #1 of the New York Knicks celebrates a basket against the Charlotte Bobcats. (Jan. 9, 2012) Credit: Jim McIsaac
In the post-lockout, hurry-up world of the NBA, it behooves the Knicks to adjust on the fly and, Monday night, they were flying just long enough.
A series of soaring alley-oop scores and general high-altitude play helped the Knicks wing their way to a 91-87 victory over the Bobcats, avenging an eight-point loss to Charlotte five days earlier. And it gave a lift to coach Mike D'Antoni's need to cobble together a contender on shortened notice.
The final five minutes were far more down-to-earth than the Knicks would have liked. Charlotte, down by as many as 11 points in the second half -- and never with the lead after the Knicks turned a 10-0 deficit into a 17-16 edge -- dragged itself back to an 82-82 tie on D.J. Augustin's three-pointer with 2:55 to play. But Carmelo Anthony scored eight points in the final 2:39 to give the Knicks the win.
Augustin hit another three-pointer with 10 seconds left to bring the Bobcats within 88-87 before Anthony hit three free throws in the final 8.6 seconds.
The late Knicks lull, D'Antoni said, was due to "probably legs. Amar'e and Melo both just couldn't generate things, and we've got the yips a little bit. We're not a very confident team; especially at home, we're not confident. It's going to take a while to get through that. But wins do help, and we've just got to get guys to settle down and make shots.''
Because of the league's compacted schedule, necessitated by the labor strife that delayed the season opener until Christmas Day, D'Antoni noted that "the last couple of weeks, we hardly even go'' in practice. "There's not a whole lot of time.''
He added, "You try to always balance between getting them rest and treatment and going over film and walk-throughs . . . try to save their legs, keep 'em fresh and, at the same time, try to assimilate everybody.''
There are eight new faces on this season's roster, and D'Antoni clearly is on the clock, given the expectations "to win the championship two weeks ago,'' he said. So Monday night's third straight victory helped. Even though Anthony, he of the offensive proclivity, began to force shots late in the first half.
Anthony shot 6-for-18 but did finish with a team-high six assists, which energized the Madison Square Garden crowd as much as his 22 points. The primary beneficiaries of the crisp ball movement through most of three quarters were Amar'e Stoudemire, who shot only 7-for-25 but scored 25 points, and 7-1 center Tyson Chandler, the 10th-year pro who helped Dallas to the league title last season. Chandler scored 20 points and shot 7-for-8, with five of his field goals coming off assists.
Rookie Iman Shumpert had 16 points and four assists and Landry Fields added five assists. Chandler had a game-high 13 rebounds and Stoudemire had 12.
For Charlotte, Boris Diaw had 19 points and D.J. White 15.
The Knicks, who hit 30 of 40 free-throw attempts to the Bobcats' 12 of 15, made only 38 percent of their shots from the field and were 1-for-10 from three-point range. "But when it came down to it,'' Anthony said, "we made the shots when we had to.''
"When you play hard,'' Shumpert said, "you get rewarded.''
