Carmelo Anthony puts in a 28-12 night as New York Knicks see off the Milwaukee Bucks: NBA Recap
The New York Knicks haven’t had the best of seasons so far and it only became worse on Sunday night when their star power forward Amare’ Stoudemire was ruled out indefinitely due to a bulging disk in the back. The injury has potentially ended the season
for Stoudemire, but for the Knicks on Monday, there was no time to sink in that feeling of loss as they took on Milwaukee Bucks in a crucial Eastern Conference fixture.
In what could turn out to be ‘the’ deciding encounter for the eighth seed in the Conference, Carmelo Anthony pounded a game high 28 points and also hauled down 12 rebounds as the Knicks rolled over the Bucks 89-80 at the Madison Square Garden.
With the Knicks also without Jeremy Lin (sore knee), the small forward gave a glimpse of the old Anthony.
"Tonight it was a game we had to win," He said after the game. "And I wanted to do everything in my power to do it."
The Knicks also got 13 points and 9 boards from centre Tyson Chandler. Baron Davis also had 13 but gave away a shocking 9 turnovers while Iman Shumpert added 11 for New York which shot just 35.1 percent from the floor.
Milwaukee got off to a slow start but behind Mike Dunleavy, they pushed their way into ascendancy late in the second quarter. Things however started to fall apart for the Bucks after that and their struggle was epitomized when Dunleavy, who shot 10-for-11
in the first three quarters failed to land even one of his 3 shots in the decisive quarter.
Dunleavy led the Bucks with 26 points while Brandon Jennings scored 15. No other Milwaukee starter managed to score above six.
The Knicks were leading by 20-10 late in the first quarter, before Dunleavy got going for the Bucks. The 6ft 9in guard started with the night with a jumper and then drilled three triples and slipped in a layup, before the quarter closed at 26-30.
Beno Udrih, who scored 9 points, then helped the Bucks to keep pace with the Knicks, before Dunleavy again erupted with 10 points in a 12-nothing run to hand Milwaukee a 49-40 lead. The Knicks responded with a 7-1 run to close in at 47-50, but a Jennings
jumper made it 52-47 as the teams headed into the locker room.
The Bucks froze after the break. They managed to make only 6 out of the 21 attempted field goals in the third quarter and allowed the cold shooting Knicks to take advantage. Anthony scored 14 of the 21 points in that period as the Knicks outscored the Bucks
21-12 to snatch a 68-64 lead.
The Knicks started with 4 consecutive points in fourth to stretch their lead, but the Bucks kept edging back and with 2:30 left on the clock, a jumper from Drew Gooden brought the scores to 84-80. However, that was the last time Bucks managed to find the
rim as the Knicks scrapped through to an important win.
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