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WHAT IT MEANS: How’s this for team chemistry?
With LeBron James barreling down the lane and the Heat down one with under 10 seconds to play, Carmelo Anthony slowed James' progress and Amare Stoudemireblocked his shot to seal the Knicks’ 91-86 win.
Fans and pundits had questioned whether Stoudemire and Anthony could come together on the offensive end since the Knicks landed Anthony in a trade on Tuesday, but it was the defensive stand on James by Stat and Melo that stood out most in a game that at times mimicked the ugly, grind-it-out nature of the Knicks-Heat battles of the late 1990s.
The Knicks rebounded from an embarrassing 115-109 loss to the 11-win Cavaliers on Friday night by holding the best team in the Eastern Conference to 50 points in the final three quarters. New York shot just 38 percent from the field but held the Heat to 43 percent shooting and 27 percent from 3-point land.
TURNING POINT: Chauncey Billups showed Knicks fans why they call him “Mr. Big Shot” in the final 2:36 when he finished with two huge steals and five points to help the Knicks turn a four-point deficit into a huge road win. Billups hit a running nine-footer with 1:43 to play and then drilled a deep 3-pointer on the right elbow to pull the Knicks up 85-84 with 1:01 to play. He stole a pass intended for Mike Miller and set up Shawne Williams, who was fouled and converted two free-throws to put the Knicks up, 87-84. The Knicks nearly lost this game in the first half, but they rebounded from a 15-point second quarter deficit with a 16-0 run to close out the half, capped off by Bill Walker’s 3-pointer off glass at the buzzer.
DIFFERENCE-MAKER: Anthony finished with 29 points on 10-of-22 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds. Stoudemire and Billups each had 16 points on a combined 25 shots and Stoudemire grabbed 10 rebounds. Landry Fields, Anthony Carter and others helped limitDwyane Wade to 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting and five turnovers in 40 minutes. James finished with 27 but made just one of five 3-point attempts.
UGLY, INTENSE: At times, the pace and execution in this game mimicked the low-scoring battles between the Knicks and Heat from 1997-2000, when the teams met in the playoffs for four straight seasons with the Knicks winning three decisive games on Miami’s home court. Neither New York nor Miami – two teams averaging more than 100 points per game – reached the 80-point mark until there was 4:30 to play in the game. They combined for 34 turnovers, shot a combined 63 of 154 (41 percent) and scored a combined 28 points in a turnover-filled third quarter. Ugly.
WHAT’S NEXT: The Knicks leave South Beach and head north to take on the Orlando Magic on Tuesday, a game that kicks off a stretch in which the Knicks play 12 games in 15 days. In all, they play 18 games in March, including eight on the road. It’s their most taxing month of the season and means Anthony and Billups won’t have much time to get acclimated to Mike D’Antoni’s system. The tough stretch starts Tuesday at Amway Arena, where the undersized Knicks take on Dwight Howard and a Magic team that lost to Sacramento but beat Los Angeles and Oklahoma City last week.
With LeBron James barreling down the lane and the Heat down one with under 10 seconds to play, Carmelo Anthony slowed James' progress and Amare Stoudemireblocked his shot to seal the Knicks’ 91-86 win.
Fans and pundits had questioned whether Stoudemire and Anthony could come together on the offensive end since the Knicks landed Anthony in a trade on Tuesday, but it was the defensive stand on James by Stat and Melo that stood out most in a game that at times mimicked the ugly, grind-it-out nature of the Knicks-Heat battles of the late 1990s.
The Knicks rebounded from an embarrassing 115-109 loss to the 11-win Cavaliers on Friday night by holding the best team in the Eastern Conference to 50 points in the final three quarters. New York shot just 38 percent from the field but held the Heat to 43 percent shooting and 27 percent from 3-point land.
TURNING POINT: Chauncey Billups showed Knicks fans why they call him “Mr. Big Shot” in the final 2:36 when he finished with two huge steals and five points to help the Knicks turn a four-point deficit into a huge road win. Billups hit a running nine-footer with 1:43 to play and then drilled a deep 3-pointer on the right elbow to pull the Knicks up 85-84 with 1:01 to play. He stole a pass intended for Mike Miller and set up Shawne Williams, who was fouled and converted two free-throws to put the Knicks up, 87-84. The Knicks nearly lost this game in the first half, but they rebounded from a 15-point second quarter deficit with a 16-0 run to close out the half, capped off by Bill Walker’s 3-pointer off glass at the buzzer.
DIFFERENCE-MAKER: Anthony finished with 29 points on 10-of-22 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds. Stoudemire and Billups each had 16 points on a combined 25 shots and Stoudemire grabbed 10 rebounds. Landry Fields, Anthony Carter and others helped limitDwyane Wade to 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting and five turnovers in 40 minutes. James finished with 27 but made just one of five 3-point attempts.
UGLY, INTENSE: At times, the pace and execution in this game mimicked the low-scoring battles between the Knicks and Heat from 1997-2000, when the teams met in the playoffs for four straight seasons with the Knicks winning three decisive games on Miami’s home court. Neither New York nor Miami – two teams averaging more than 100 points per game – reached the 80-point mark until there was 4:30 to play in the game. They combined for 34 turnovers, shot a combined 63 of 154 (41 percent) and scored a combined 28 points in a turnover-filled third quarter. Ugly.
WHAT’S NEXT: The Knicks leave South Beach and head north to take on the Orlando Magic on Tuesday, a game that kicks off a stretch in which the Knicks play 12 games in 15 days. In all, they play 18 games in March, including eight on the road. It’s their most taxing month of the season and means Anthony and Billups won’t have much time to get acclimated to Mike D’Antoni’s system. The tough stretch starts Tuesday at Amway Arena, where the undersized Knicks take on Dwight Howard and a Magic team that lost to Sacramento but beat Los Angeles and Oklahoma City last week.
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