Cleveland Cavaliers stun the New York Knicks 98-90; Spoil Amare’ Stoudemire’s return - NBA Recap
On Friday night at the Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH, the Cleveland Cavaliers stunned the New York Knicks 98-90.
Knicks who have been in spectacular off late and have clinched a playoff berth could not prevent the Cavs from winning the matchup despite the return of their star power forward, Amare’ Stoudemire.
With the win, the Cavaliers put an end to their three-game losing streak, nipping a two-game winning streak of the Knicks in the process.
Amare’ who had been out with injury since March, returned to game time action to tie a team high of 15 points on the night while also collecting 3 rebounds. Carmelo Anthony, who had been on a scoring spree lately, had a comparatively
average night as finished with 12 points.
Mike Bibby was the third starter for New York scoring in double figures ending the game with 12 points and 4 assists. J.R. Smith and Steve Novak came off the bench to notch up 11 and 15 points respectively.
For the Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving who had only returned from injury himself was the leading scorer with 21 points. Manny Harris was not far behind as he finished the game with double-double figures of 19 points and 12 rebounds.
Tristan Thompson chipped in with 10 points while Anthony Parker and Antawn Jamison contributed 9 and 8 points respectively. Samardo Samuels came off the bench to also score 15 points.
On the night, Cavs crashed the boards pretty hard, out-rebounding the Knicks 52-32, 16 of which came on the offensive glass which helped them increase their second chance points. Cavs were also pretty dominant from inside the paint
as they outscored the Knicks 42-30 in that department.
Both teams shot the ball below 50% from the field as they combined together to take a total of 162 shots in the game while successfully converting 71 of them. Cavaliers were helped by their free throw shooting on the night as they
shot the ball 74.1% from the charity stripe.
In the opening quarter, both sides were finding it easy to convert possession into baskets which resulted in the scores being very close throughout. Cavs were able to close out the quarter on a 4-0 run to lead by 25-20.
Cavaliers led all the way in the second quarter and by the 3:32 mark, were able to extend their advantage into double-figures. Cavs outscored the Knicks 9-4 in the last 4 and half minutes to lead by 11 points at the break.
The lead remained in double figures and got to as much as 14 on several occasions in the third quarter. Before going into the final quarter of the game, Cavs were able to increase their advantage to 16 as they led by a score of
72-56.
At the 6:04 mark in the final quarter, Cavs were cruising by 85-67, but at that point, Knicks were able to put together a 9-2 run to get the advantage back down to 11 points. A Harangody three pointer later, the Knicks scored six
on a trot to pull within 82-90, before Manny Harris finally put the game beyond doubt with 4 consecutive free throws.
Cavs led by double-figures once again at the at the 1:47 mark and in the end, they were able to hold on to this one by a margin of 8.
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