Knicks top Nuggets, 129-125, for 8th in row
Carmelo Anthony, Brooklyn-born and hard to impress, was impressed by the Knicks Sunday.
"They've definitely turned it around," Anthony said after the Knicks' 129-125 victory over the Denver Nuggets at the Garden. "They're playing at a high level - a very high level - right now. Everybody seems like they're in cahoots with each other."
Anthony meant the Knicks are comfortable with each other and really playing well together. The good kind of "cahoots."
The (arguably) bad kind of cahoots is the multitangled web of superstar team-changing intrigue that created a frenzied atmosphere around Denver's lone visit to New York this season.
Just as with LeBron James' games at the Garden last season, part of the drama Sunday was Knicks fans imagining the other team's superstar one day joining their squad.
Will Anthony get traded to or sign with the Knicks? Perhaps. But after the opening introductions, during which Anthony drew loud cheers, and despite a few halfhearted attempts by fans to start a "We Want 'Melo" chant, yesterday's game was not about Anthony's future.
It was about a terrific game, a terrific win for the Knicks and a terrific milestone for the Knicks' current lone superstar, Amar'e Stoudemire.
Stoudemire scored 24 of his 30 points in the second half as the Knicks won their eighth in a row and 13th in 14 in a supercharged, super-physical afternoon game. Stoudemire set a franchise record with his eighth consecutive game with at least 30 points - and almost didn't get to play in most of it.
Frustrated early by the defense of bruising Denver center Nene, Stoudemire easily could have been ejected from the game in the second quarter. He picked up a technical foul for arguing a non-call in the first quarter and barely escaped a second when he hit Nene in the throat area with a forearm with 6:07 left in the second.
The Denver bench went bonkers, screaming for the technical, which would have meant an automatic ejection for Stoudemire.
Injured Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin looked over at press row and said, "That's two games for me," meaning a two-game suspension.
Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni admitted the Knicks might have gotten away with one.
"I'm biased. I'm glad it didn't happen for either one of them," D'Antoni said. "It would have spoiled a great game. Nobody wanted that. Although if I'm Denver, I would have probably wanted it."
To clarify: Nene was not in danger of being ejected, just Stoudemire. And to further clarify: D'Antoni was chuckling a bit when he talked about Denver probably wanting Stoudemire out. Perhaps it was the canary D'Antoni had just swallowed.
"I'm glad it worked out the way it did," he said.
Anthony, who missed the Nuggets' previous two games with a sore right knee, had 31 points and 13 rebounds. Nene had 26 points and Al Harrington 19 for the Nuggets (14-9).
Wilson Chandler had 27 points for the Knicks (16-9), including the go-ahead-for-good three-pointer with :30.6 left. The Knicks had led for most of the game, but it was tied at 122 before Chandler hit his fifth three.
Trailing by three, Anthony was called for a pushoff against Danilo Gallinari with 16.9 left. Raymond Felton (19 points, 17 assists) hit four of five free throws to send the crowd home thinking about what the Knicks have and not what they might one day get in Anthony.
