The New York Knicks bounced back from the return of "Linsanity" to Madison Square Garden with a dominant 100-86 win over their in-city rivals, the Brooklyn Nets, Wednesday (Thursday, PHL time), as Carmelo Anthony made his return to the line-up.
The Knicks had suffered a blowout 109-96 loss against the Jeremy Lin-led Houston Rockets, Monday (Tuesday, PHL time), their first defeat at home this season, but buoyed by Carmelo Anthony's comeback after missing a pair of games, the Knicks rebounded with a vengeance.
New York improved their record to 19-6, while the skidding Brooklyn team suffered their third straight defeat to fall to 13-12.
A tightly-contested first half that saw 14 lead changes and eight ties gave way to a 52-48 Knicks lead at the break.
The Nets took a four-point advantage on a Deron Williams jumper, 61-57, with 6:54 left in the third, but the Knicks countered with an 18-4 run to establish a 10-point lead, courtesy of a Tyson Chandler alley-oop. Williams managed to strike back with 3.5 ticks left in the period though, to make it a single-digit buffer, 75-67, with a quarter to play.
A charity by Andray Blatche made it a seven-point game, 75-68, early in the fourth, but New York reeled off another huge run with seven unanswered, to make it 82-68, over a two-minute span.
A Brook Lopez tip-in ate into that score, turning it into an 11-point ball game, 4:29 left to play, but the Knicks were relentless. Another 7-0 run, the last four coming courtesy of Anthony, made it 98-80 with 2:33 left. Brooklyn sued for time, but on the ensuing play, CJ Watson missed a triple, which led to both teams cycling in their reserves with the game well in the Knicks' hands.
Carmelo Anthony exploded for a game-high 31 points in his return, while JR Smith came off the bench to add 19. Center Tyson Chandler was also potent down low, coming away with 16 points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks.
The Nets were led by Joe Johnson's 17 markers, though he needed 14 attempts to get those. Brook Lopez and Deron Williams each had 16 markers.
The Nets had just nine foul shot attempts, compared to the 17 of the Knicks. - AMD, GMA News
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