Knicks Enjoy a Blowout Against a Team With Its Own Problems - New York Times

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Knicks Enjoy a Blowout Against a Team With Its Own Problems - New York Times Mar 15th 2012, 02:20 GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Hours after Mike D'Antoni's resignation, the Knicks, losers of six straight, hosted the Portland Trail Blazers, who had lost six of eight, the only two wins coming against the lowly New Orleans Hornets and Washington Wizards. Tyson Chandler, center, had 9 points and 7 rebounds. Carmelo Anthony driving to score 2 of his 16 points. He also had seven assists as the Knicks ended a six-game skid. The Knicks had lost their coach, a preacher of motion offense, and the Blazers entered the game last in the N.B.A. in assists. On Tuesday, their measly total of four in Indiana was the league's lowest since December of 2010, according to NBA.com. So pretty basketball was not on the agenda at Madison Square Garden, but a familiar relationship with dysfunction was. Four current Blazers are noted former Knicks — Kurt Thomas, Marcus Camby, Jamal Crawford, Raymond Felton. And Crawford and Felton have reportedly "quietly orchestrated a mutiny" after being harangued during a film session by Coach Nate McMillan. If a game could mirror group therapy, the Knicks found their breakthrough, blowing out the Blazers, 121-79. It was so out of hand that Steve Novak's back-ironed 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer could have doubled the Blazers' point total. The Knicks would have to settle for a 26-point lead at intermission, 55-29 before more than doubling the Blazers' total early in the third quarter. All eyes on him, Carmelo Anthony (16 points, 7 assists) found the right combination of big-play distribution and important scoring. Amar'e Stoudemire (17 points, 8 rebounds) shot perfectly from the field in the first half. J.R. Smith had a game-high 23 points, while Novak added 20. Novak and Smith basically engaged in a shooting contest for the affection of the fans late in the fourth quarter. Sharing the point guard minutes, Jeremy Lin and Baron Davis combined for 16 assists, although Lin finished with 6 turnovers. The Blazers committed 17 first-half turnovers and registered only 5 assists, in part because of the Knicks' energy and swarming defense, but also because of their own rampant sloppiness. Felton (five first-half steals and four first-half turnovers) scuttled up and down the court like a broken remote control car. Crawford did not play. Anthony, the driving force behind D'Antoni's resignation, was the focus of the offense early on. In leading the Knicks to a 20-12 lead, he scored 10 points and fed Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler for dunks. He also seemed more at home almost immediately without D'Antoni, the coach whose offensive style demanded more ball movement and less isolation play. Anthony found himself alone in multiple instances in the first quarter, free to launch late shot clock 3-pointers or create off the dribble. The interim Coach Mike Woodson, who coached the isolation-reliant scorer Joe Johnson in Atlanta, is known as a slow tempo coach. "I've got to get a practice under my belt to be able to add some things as we move forward," Woodson said before the game. Yet for all of Anthony's successes early on, the Knicks were even better after he checked out with under three minutes remaining in the first quarter. A wing 3-pointer from Novak capped a 17-4 run without Anthony on the court and staked the Knicks to a 37-16 lead. The ball was moving and a second unit of Novak, Davis, Iman Shumpert, Smith, and Jared Jeffries—who checked into the game to a nice ovation after missing four games — asserted itself. "I told everybody to take a deep breath and relax, all's not bad," Woodson said before the game. "You hate to lose a coach. Mike D'Antoni was good to me, by giving me an opportunity when I was out, a year sitting on the side watching. And I have a great deal of respect for that. But we've got to move on. We kind of can't undo what's been done." REBOUNDS There was a moment of silence for former Knicks assistant coach Dick Harter before the game. Harter, who died of cancer on Monday at 81, was the defensive architect for some excellent mid-nineties Knicks teams, including the 1994 Eastern Conference Champions ... Former St. John's star Felipe Lopez, who is ubiquitous at Madison Square Garden, introduced the Knicks in Spanish for Noche Latina. A version of this article appeared in print on March 15, 2012, on page B13 of the New York edition with the headline: Knicks Enjoy a Blowout Against a Team With Its Own Problems. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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