New York Knicks strike in the second half to rout Cleveland Cavaliers 120-103 - NBA Recap
New York Knicks made a huge second half come back to decimate Cleveland Cavaliers, 120-103 on Wednesday night at the Madison Square Garden.
Carmelo Anthony was on song as he recorded a team high 22 points while Jeremy Lin posted a double-double with 19 points and 13 assists.
"I think our second unit did an awesome job," Lin said post game. "I think we've been talking a lot about our depth and tonight we definitely got to see the depth, and so that's going to be strength of ours and we need to continue
to use that."
Reserve Steve Novak netted 17 on 5-of-8 from distance; Amare Stoudemire tallied 14 while centre Tyson Chandler had 13 points and 15 boards. Iman Shumpert also recorded 12 points in New York’s 18th victory of this shortened
season.
Cavs had 4 players in double figures, led by a game-high from Antawn Jamison. He scored 23 points and had 10 rebounds while rookie Kyrie Irving had 22. Daniel Gibson netted 13 point off the bench while Tristan Thompson came up
with 11 points and 8 boards for Cleveland, who have now lost three in a row.
Cavs opened the game on a 15-7 run but Knicks brushed that aside with a 7-2 of their own. Midway through the 1st quarter, the Cavaliers were leading by 17-14 and by the end of it, they stretched their lead to 31-24.
It was followed by a 10-5 run early in the 2nd frame as the visitors took a comfortable 41-29 lead.
Deep into the 2nd stanza Cleveland were up with 59-42 before the Knicks capped off the segment with 7-2 run. As the teams headed towards the locker room they were leading by a mammoth 61-49 advantage.
However all that was about to change.
Knicks opened the 3rd frame with a bang. They raced off to a 15-4 run early in the piece and clawed off the deficit to one, 65-64, with 6:24 to expire in the 3rd. Midway into the quarter, the Cavs regained
a 71-64 lead but New York scratched that off by pulling another 11-3 run and placed themselves ahead at 75-74.
In the following passage, the game remained tight but Knicks managed to conclude the segment with an 82-80 advantage.
Novak hit a trey and Smith netted two freebies early in the 4th quarter to augment New York’s lead to 87 before Sessions hit a jumper to make it 87-82. Knicks followed that with a 10-2 spurt, leaving the Cavs in the
wake at 97-84.
With 3:18 left on the clock, the Knicks stretched their lead to 106-98 and then hammered the last nail in the coffin with a huge 14-2 spurt. There wasn’t much the Cavs could do after that as they slumped to their 2nd
loss in the last 14 games against the Knicks.
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