By Scott Spangler
After Chauncey Billups was led off the floor with a knee injury, Toney Douglas hit a wing three to break an 82-all deadlock with 37.8 on the clock.
Kevin Garnett proceeded to flush a perfect inbound lob from Rajon Rondo. Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, obviously frustrated at the play, quickly called for a timeout to draw up a play for the most important possession of the evening. I like to think he wanted to huddle with his troops because ANY bucket taking less than two seconds is absolutely unacceptable by D’Antoni standards.
Carmelo Anthony was then called for an offensive foul. New York still up one, but that one hurt. Twenty-one seconds to play.
Another defensive foul on Melo, a kick ball call, and then Ray Allen launches one from deep… Boston by two with 11.6 remaining.
That is how this one would end, 87-85 Celtics. Carmelo would put a three up for the win, but the shot barely caught iron.
Boston got away with one. The Knicks played well enough to win. In fact, they should have taken this one. Sloppy execution down the stretch did NY in tonight. That and rebounding, once again.
Lost in the defeat was the brilliant performance by Amare Stoudemire. He grabbed 11 boards, even made what seemed at the time to be timely defensive stops – including one gorgeous block at the rim on Ray Allen.
But it was Allen who saved Boston today with 11 points in the fourth, including the game winner.