Knicks make it 3-0 under Woodson
Knicks center Tyson Chandler dunks against the Indiana Pacers. (March 17, 2012) Credit: AP
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Knicks' first two games under Mike Woodson were easy wins, basically over in the first half. But Saturday night they showed the ability to pull out a hard-fought game.
After letting a 14-point third-quarter lead dwindle to one early in the fourth, the Knicks ratcheted up their defense. They held the Pacers to four field goals in the final quarter and beat Indiana for the second straight night, 102-88.
"The beauty about tonight is we kind of lost our composure -- probably bad coaching a little bit," Woodson said. "We were able to hang in there and our defense brought us right back. And that's to me, when I see things like that, that's a wonderful sign, especially when you're playing a great team on the road."
The Knicks were wearing their St. Patrick's Day green uniforms, and Woodson probably would have been seeing red if his team hadn't finished the way it did.
The Knicks (21-24) held the Pacers to 53 points in the last three quarters, outscored Indiana 25-12 in the last 11:22 and improved to 3-0 under Woodson. They took sole possession of eighth place in the Eastern Conference race, a half-game ahead of the Bucks. "We just want to win," Amar'e Stoudemire said. "We want to win and win a championship and play to the best of our ability. That's what's fueling us right now."
Jeremy Lin led the Knicks with 19 points, eight of them in the fourth. He added seven rebounds and six assists. Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony had 16 points each. The Knicks' bench also played well, scoring 34 points, and it was the reserves' energy and defense that pushed the Knicks to a 13-point lead in the second quarter.
Roy Hibbert had 24 points and 12 rebounds for Indiana (25-18).
The Knicks embarrassed Indiana on Friday night, leading by as many as 32 points in a 15-point win. That was fresh in the Pacers' minds, and the Knicks anticipated that they would approach this game with payback in mind.
They knew this game wouldn't be as easy as their first two under Woodson, when their defensive intensity and overall passion led them to wins by a total of 57 points.
The Pacers scored 35 points in the first quarter. But the Knicks regrouped, with their bench leading the way, and held Indiana to 16 points in the second quarter in taking a 60-51 halftime lead.
The Knicks went ahead 70-56 with 7:37 left in the third, then went 6:17 without a field goal and needed to rely on their defense again after A.J. Price's running bank shot to open the fourth made it 77-76.
"Bad teams are going to crumble and go the other way," Woodson said. "They didn't do that. They picked it up with their defense and then we made a few shots, got a small cushion and then our defense just took over again. It was kind of stifling."
The Knicks never gave the Pacers the chance to go ahead. On the next trip, J.R. Smith (11 points) knocked down a three-pointer to start a 17-4 run. Smith also scored the last points in that surge, hitting a fadeaway jumper with 4:23 left to make it 94-80.
In that 6:59 stretch, the Knicks forced the Pacers into 1-for-7 shooting and four turnovers.
"I definitely think this is the identity we should have had all year," Tyson Chandler said. "Play aggressive defensively, share the ball offensively. I think that's the thing we've been trying to get to, and for the last three games, we've been playing it right."
