Carmelo Anthony drops 37 as New York Knicks keep Washington Wizards winless: NBA Recap
It looks like Maurice Evans emergency players - only meeting was taken seriously by the Washington Wizards players and although they failed to collect their first victory of the shortened season, they put up a much improved performance
on Saturday night, giving the mighty New York Knicks a run for their money.
Carmelo Anthony, who started the game with a sore right hip, paced the winners with 37 points and 7 rebounds while Amar’e Stoudemire finally gained some momentum and pounded 23 points and 12 boards. Tyson Chandler too was phenomenal
and registered 12 points and pulled down 15 rebounds.
Nick Young marshalled the Wizards with 24 points while John Wall had 22 points and 9 rebounds. Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee finished with 15 and 13 points respectively.
Wizards started brilliantly and dominated the first quarter completely. In the second frame, they showed glimpses of what they have been doing this season by allowing Knicks an easy passage to make a comeback in the game, however
unlike the previous games, they did not give up after blowing up the lead.
With the scores tied at 54, midway through the third frame, the Knicks had turned the game in their favour after reeling off a 12-3 spurt however Wizards rallied back and ensured that they entered the final frame trailing behind
just by 3 points 72-69.
Anthony, who pounded 22 points in the fourth quarter of the last game against the Charlotte Bobcats, kept on attacking in the final frame and took the Knicks to a comfortable position at 95-87 with 4 minutes remaining.
However Andray Blatche, John Wall and Nick Young combined forces and initiated a 9-0 run to take a 96-95 lead. Wizards just needed to hold Knicks for 50 more seconds to complete this win; however Carmelo ruined their dream by drilling
a three pointer.
"I was hurt. I was just praying it went in. I wasn't going to try to drive at all. I knew I didn't have any push off on my right leg." Anthony said about his game-winning shot.
John Wall missed a trey on the next possession and with just 3.7 seconds to go, Imran Shumpert split his free throws to hand the Knicks a three point lead.
Young got a chance to take the game in to O.T but his 3 point attempt missed the target and the Knicks held on.
They outclassed Knicks in the shooting department, (48.2% - 43.8%) from the floor and (42.9%-33.3%) from the long range, however they were not able to make enough trip to the charity stripe and that eventually made the difference
on the night.
Tags: