Houston Rockets down Carmelo-less New York Knicks on Jeremy Lin's return: NBA Recap
In his first appearance at the Madison Square Garden since signing up for the Houston Rockets in the summer, Jeremy Lin led the Rockets to a 109-96 victory, handing New York Knicks their first home defeat on Monday night. The Knicks
dropped to 10-1 at home and had their 4 game winning streak snapped.
"We're just thankful to get the win. It was a lot of fun playing out there and I think our team, we took a step in the right direction. It was great to be back and it was a lot of fun to play on that court again." Lin on the win.
James Harden collected a double-double with 28 points and 10 rebounds, Jeremy Lin posted 22 points and dished out 8 assists, and Marcus Morris chipped in with 13 points.
The Knicks were without Carmelo Anthony, out with a sprained ankle, and Rasheed Wallace, out with a sore left foot. Still, they put up a decent fight. Chris Copeland led all scorers on the night with career-high 29 points, Tyson
Chandler had 18 rebounds and 8 points while J.R. Smith added 17 points off the bench.
Jason Kidd sank a three pointer in the early goings of the first period to put the hosts up 7-4. But the Rockets snatched the lead soon, a Morris free had them up 13-9, and a Lin layup pushed their advantage to 17-11 around the
6 minute mark. Houston were up 22-13 when Knicks turned on the recovery mode and started cutting the deficit. Smith connected two from downtown to pull New York within 23-24 and they were up 31-29 by the end of the period.
Rockets kicked off the second period with a 10 nil run to go up 39-31 and a Lin floating jumper minutes later had them leading 45-34 mid way through the quarter. The ‘Bearded one’ made a layup to put the Rockets up 50-41 with 2
minutes to go in first half, and they pushed their lead to 56-42 by the end of the period.
Knicks made it a 5 point game early in the third period but the Rockets went for a game changing 15-0 run to push their lead to 75-55. New York tried hard and the coach looked to bench for some energy, but the Rockets were pulling
ahead and headed into the final period holding an 83-60 lead.
Any hopes the Knicks might had of a comeback were blown away by the long distance shooting by the Rockets in the final period. Two back to back three pointers put them up 94-67 early in the quarter. Houston then were in cruise
control mode and the hosts never really looked to threaten.
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