(Photo Courtesy of George Kalinsky for Madison Square Garden)
The Hawks flew into Madison Square Garden amongst the hierarchy of the Eastern Conference. Following a dramatic 101-99 overtime thriller, Atlanta was one of only three teams who could lay claim to having a record above .500. New York on the other hand, was playing the second game of a back to back. They were itching to get back on the court to try and remove the bad taste of defeat suffered at the hands of their arch rival the Boston Celtics for the second time in less than a week.
The game was a seesaw struggle early on as the two teams jousted for control of the contest. New York managed to go on a 12-0 run in the second quarter highlighted by a pair of nice finishes at the basket by rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. His contribution turned out to be very important as JR Smith sulked his way to another subpar performance finishing the game with 2 points on 1-8 shooting. This came on the heels of his equally abysmal 2 point effort against the aforementioned Celtics.
New York increased its lead to 14 in the third before the Hawks stormed back with a barrage of trifectas. Kyle Korver accounted for four of the six Atlanta triples in the quarter alone, cutting the Knicks lead to four heading into the final twelve minutes.
Just one night removed from telling reporters, “Not every night I’m going to bail us out,” Melo did just that scoring 15 of his game high 35 points. He wasn’t without help though as other Knicks contributed in various ways. The key sequence was an 11-0 run that included a Melo three pointer, followed by an Al Horford turnover resulting in a Pablo Prigioni three. Prigioni would then steal the ball from Korver and go in for an uncontested layup. Finally, Andrea Bargnani rejected Jeff Teague at the basket and was rewarded for it as Prigioni set him up for another Knicks three. Lou Williams did his best to give his team a chance scoring 12 points in the final 2:09 but the deficit and some late free throws were too much to overcome as New York secured a 111-106 win.
Notes:
Kenyon Martin missed the game with a strained abdominal muscle. Amar’e Stoudemire who was scheduled to get a rest day suited up with Martin unable to go.
New York ended a streak of 21 consecutive games where the opponent had attempted more free throws.
Melo appeared to have injured his hamstring in the second quarter but did not miss any action.
The Knicks forced 27 turnovers which lead to 36 points.
This was only the second win of the season for the Knicks against a + .500 team.
Wilson Caicedo: PureSportsNY