Toney Douglas makes pair of free throws for Knicks win
Coming off a game where he missed all five of his shots in a loss to the Boston Celtics, Toney Douglas wasn’t tentative at all last night, attempting a game-high 17 shots. But unlike the previous contest,
this time he made nine of them.
Douglas had 23 points in 30 minutes, leading the New York Knicks to a 92-90 pre-season win over the Washington Wizards last night at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Douglas, the second-year player
out of Florida State, made a pair of game-clinching free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining in the game. The 24-year-old wouldn’t let a bad shooting night affect his confidence.
“I just keep shooting. I don’t let that bother me. It’s preseason,” Douglas said. “I’m confident enough to know that I’ll be in the gym, I work out, so if I miss five, I shoot the next one like I made
five.”
With Gilbert Arenas missing his second consecutive game for the Wizards with a strained right groin, John Wall was impressive again as the number-one overall pick in last summer’s NBA Draft continued his
excellent pre-season campaign. Wall led his team in points and assists, finishing with 19 points, six assists, five rebounds, and two steals in 35 minutes of play. Wall, a strong contender for Rookie of the Year, has averaged 16.2 points and 8 assists in six
pre-season games.
And after being outscored by 10 points in the third quarter to let the Knicks back into the game, Wall stressed the importance of continuing to play hard, especially with the lead.
"The main thing is that we have to have a better third quarter," he said. "We really have to have the same focus we had at the beginning of the game in the third quarter."
New Knick Amar’e Stoudemire finished with 18 points and seven rebounds while centre Timofey Mozgov chipped in with 12 points. Italian sharpshooter Danilo Gallinari had a horrendous night, missing all seven
of his shots.
Al Thornton and Yi Jianlian each had 12 points for the Wizards while Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
In a fourth quarter where the starters for both teams were resting on the bench, the Knicks tied the game with a jumper from Landry Fields with 26 seconds remaining. After a defensive stop by New York,
Ronny Turiaf found Douglas under the basket, who drew the foul and calmly sunk the game-winning free throws. Jianlian missed the potential game-tying shot at the buzzer. For New York coach Mike D'Antoni, it was a game of two halves.
"First time we played back-to-back, I thought a couple guys just didn't have their concentration going on and we can just find that malaise that we've seen a little bit," he said. "But second half they
competed. They got after it, and in this league that's half the battle if you just compete every night, so hopefully we can do that."
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