It was easily Carmelo Anthony's best performance as a Knick and Sunday's 43-point effort in which he hit the game-tying 3-pointer at the end of regulation and the game-winning 3-pointer at the end of overtime might be the greatest game of his entire career. And beyond simply being a brilliant all-around display from Anthony and the rest of New York's roster, Sunday's 100-99 victory over the Chicago Bulls--the team with the NBA's best record--was a statement to the rest of the league: Come May, your seeding won't save you from the Knicks because they can play with anyone... Even without Amar'e Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin.
On a bright, sunny morning for Knicks fans, here's NJ.com's daily aggregation of team news from around the web:
• Here's a brief description of some of the excitement on Sunday at Madison Square Garden by Howard Beck of The New York Times: "Carmelo Anthony was dancing, spinning, hopping and hollering, a fountain of bravado and joy, a star on a mission, a force unleashed. The moment suited him... The Knicks wobbled, and Anthony stabilized them. The Chicago Bulls charged, and Anthony turned them back. And when he had fired the last of his fate-changing shots, a 3-pointer from 25 feet that gave the Knicks a 1-point lead late Sunday afternoon, Anthony backpedaled, bounced and bellowed, to whoever was in earshot: 'This is my house!'... A boisterous crowd of 19,763 at Madison Square Garden roared in agreement. There was no sense arguing the point... Anthony's shot, with 8.2 seconds left in overtime, was easily his greatest as a Knick, and it delivered perhaps their biggest victory this season, a 100-99 win over the Bulls, the N.B.A.'s best team by record."
• Kevin Clark of The Wall Street Journal agreed that this was Anthony's greatest moment as a Knicks player: "The list of iconic moments for Carmelo Anthony in a Knicks uniform is not particularly long. A few game-winners, a high-scoring playoff game and not much else. Well, one coach did resign because of him, but that's about it. On Sunday, against the Eastern Conference's best team, Anthony took perhaps the first step toward building his legacy."
• The Bergen Record's Steve Popper describes Anthony's celebration: "He dribbled in front of Luol Deng, lifted and fired. As the three settled through the net with 8.2 seconds left, the last of his season-high 43 points, Anthony bounced his way all the back to the Knicks bench — a lap he would repeat when Derrick Rose missed on the other end at the buzzer... 'It was a great atmosphere,' Anthony said. 'That's how the Garden's supposed to be. This was a playoff game. We might play these guys in the playoffs if we keep going and get that [eighth] seed. This was a big statement game. We willed this one today... This was one of the top [shots in my career]. Overtime, Easter Sunday, everybody's watching, everybody's in the Garden. This ranks as one of the top.'"
• As good as Anthony was, the rest of the Knicks largely struggled on offense Sunday, wrote Frank Isola of the New York Daily News : "Anthony scored a season-high 43 points and did his best work at the end of the regulation and the final seconds of overtime. His 3-pointer with 11.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter capped a 10-0 Knicks run that was aided by Luol Deng and Rose each missing a pair of free throws in the final 34.1 seconds. Then in overtime, Anthony scored the game's last five points, including another 3-pointer with 8.2 seconds remaining, the Knicks' fourth shot on that one possession... 'That was incredible,' Tyson Chandler said of Anthony. 'Incredible. The Garden was pumping. I had a great view of all the great plays he made.'... Anthony, who has thrived at power forward during Amar'e Stoudemire's absence, made 16 of 31 shots including four of five 3-pointers. The rest of his teammates shot 23-for-71 and 4-for-29 on threes. It was chaotic at times, with Woodson going with a backcourt of Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith for the last 15 minutes. Shumpert made five of 14 shots while Smith was 6-for-22 but Shumpert's defense on Rose was crucial."
• Strike-shortened season, the Knicks entered Sunday as the eighth seed and eventually upset the would-be top-seed in the playoffs on a memorable 3-pointer, Larry Johnson was in the building... as Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post shows us, some ledes just write themselves: "You remember games like this if you're old enough, if you go back to the last time the Knicks had to stagger and stumble through a truncated season. That was 1999, and there were moments in that gauntlet of games when it seemed the Knicks were dead, when it seemed the coach would be fired, when the general manager was fired... 'We just had to learn to play together,' Larry Johnson, one of that season's forever heroes, said yesterday morning... Johnson was at the Garden accepting a new front-office post with the Knicks, a gig he earned in no small part to the four-point play he dropped on the Pacers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, a moment that still echoes in the ears and the memory banks of anyone who was inside the Garden that day."
• As exciting as the game was, Sunday's win doesn't happen unless Derrick Rose and Luol Deng miss some important free throws, as Mitch Lawrence of the Daily News reminds us: "'All we needed was just one and we're winning this game,' said one member of the Bulls' traveling party... This is the second time this season that Rose has missed two late-game foul shots and cost his team a big road win. That's what you'd call conduct unbecoming of an MVP. He also did it in Miami on Jan. 29 in the Bulls' four-point loss to the Heat... That day, he fought back tears, saying, "I guarantee you, the next time, those shots are going down.'... But against the Knicks, he didn't make good on his guarantee, bricking two free throws in the final 19 seconds, with the Bulls ahead by 91-88. In Miami, he otherwise dominated the game, only to fall apart in the final seconds. At the Garden, he struggled in his first game since Lin, of all people, blocked one of his trademark rampages to the basket, resulting in a strained groin in what turned out to be Mike D'Antoni's swan song. That KO'd him from the lineup for 12 games, but the Bulls still went 8-4... 'Hopefully, the next time I get the opportunity, I'll knock them down,' he said."
• Another reason the Knicks won is because of the effort Tyson Chandler gave on the boards in the final possession, wrote Marc Berman of the Post: "With the Knicks down 99-97 in OT, Anthony elected against driving on Deng for the tie. Instead, he lofted it up again from the right side — 8.2 seconds left and it was bliss... The possession was kept alive by irrepressible center Tyson Chandler, who had 16 rebounds, 10 on the offensive glass. He batted another J.R. Smith brick out to the perimeter. Smith made a good save in tapping the ball over to Steve Novak, who then found Anthony on the right wing."
• And it wasn't just the final possession for Chandler, As Berman's colleague Mark Hale explained, Chandler did it for the entire game: "Logging a season-high 44 minutes, Chandler scored just eight points on on four shots, but hauled in 16 rebounds and blocked three shots. Bulls center Joakim Noah had just five boards in 27 minutes... 'I thought Tyson was huge [yesterday] defensively in terms of plugging up the middle and making plays, keeping balls alive,' interim coach Mike Woodson said."
• Even though he returned to play with an elbow contusion, Chandler will have to receive treatment on the joint, Newsday's Al Iannazzone reported: "Tyson Chandler's right elbow went numb in the first quarter, but he fought through a bone bruise and battled on the boards... Chandler grabbed 10 offensive rebounds Sunday, including the one that led to Carmelo Anthony's game-winning three-pointer with 8.2 seconds left in overtime. 'I knew we were going to have to make something happen,' Chandler said. 'I wanted to get some extra shot opportunities for my teammates and Melo seemed to keep coming up with the big shots.'... Chandler ended up with eight points, 16 rebounds and three blocks in 44 minutes in the Knicks' 100-99 win. He will get treatment on his elbow Monday and also is playing with an injured left wrist."
• Afterward, Anthony could only describe the win as a playoff atmosphere, Iannazzone wrote: "'This was a playoff game,' Anthony said. 'We might play these guys in the playoffs if we keep going and get that seed. This was a big statement game. We willed this one.'"
• While Iman Shumpert didn't have a great game offensively, he was duct taped to Rose for most of the game, Hale explained: "Before yesterday, Rose, the Bulls' dazzling All-Star point guard, had shot 50.3 percent in his past nine games against the Knicks, averaging 26.6 points. Yesterday Rose, returning after missing 12 games with a right groin injury, poured in 29 points but missed 18 of 26 shots from the floor, saying, 'I am just [trying] to get back into rhythm.'... 'I was just trying to keep him uncomfortable,' Shumpert said. 'Anytime I got beat, my guys were right there to help me.'"
• Stoudemire was out again with the bulging disc in his back, but as Berman wrote, Larry Johnson was once in that same boat: "Johnson, who had remained close with owner James Dolan since his retirement in 1999, battled major disk issues that eventually ended his career... LJ, in his first basketball job since retirement, will work in player development, community relations and marketing for the Knicks. Stoudemire, who has a bulging disk that could require offseason surgery, is out indefinitely... 'What I would like to do is I'd like to talk to Amar'e and hear his symptoms,' Johnson said. 'No question, everybody knows my back was the main reason I retired. Amar'e is a little different than me. His body is different than mine."
• As Popper wrote, interim coach Mike Woodson has been happy with Stoudemire's progress: "'Things seem to be going smoothly,' coach Mike Woodson said. 'There haven't been any setbacks or anything like that as far as I know of. I'm pretty pleased where he is. How long he's going to be before he gets back on the floor, I don't know.'"
• As for Jeremy Lin, it doesn't seem likely he could return for a first-round playoff series, Berman wrote: "Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin does not sound optimistic he will be able to beat the six-week timetable and suit up in late April for the start of the playoffs... Lin, speaking before yesterday's 100-99 overtime victory over the Bulls for the first time since surgery to repair a torn left meniscus last Monday, said he does not want to rush back. He sees the Knicks' chemistry coming together without him, lessening his urgency... Lin said he still has fluid in his knee, and has not begun to run. He said he will know much more about his timetable in a week when he is permitted to run."
• Lin is, however, happy with the progress his knee is making, Iannazzone explained: "He's already riding the bike and thinks that if all goes well, he could run late next week. But he's not comfortable saying he's ahead of schedule... 'Scared to say that right now because all the doctors are saying this is normal,' Lin said. 'After about 11/2 to two weeks is when you can see how well you're doing. Everyone said they pretty much walk out of meniscus surgery. I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic, I guess.'"
• As Beck wrote, the Knicks need to win for Lin to play again this season: "Lin, the Knicks' young point-guard sensation, is on a six-week rehabilitation schedule that will probably end his season, unless the Knicks advance in the playoffs. Although the early signs are good, it is too soon to say whether Lin can beat projections... 'Scared to say that right now," he said. "Because all the doctors are saying that this is normal — like after about one and a half to two weeks is when you can really see how well you're doing.'"
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