New York Knicks Blog – Page 122 – NBA Blog

Ray Allen scores 24, Celtics edge Knicks 87-85 in Game 1

The AP reports:

Ray Allen hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 12 seconds left off a pass from Paul Pierce and Anthony misfired on his long try at the other end, giving the Celtics an 87-85 comeback victory over the Knicks in their playoff opener on Sunday night…

Allen led the Celtics with 24 points and Pierce added 18 to go along with solid defense on Anthony. Kevin Garnett had 15 points and 13 rebounds, and clamped down on Amare Stoudemire down the stretch.

Stoudemire had 28 points and 11 rebounds for New York, and Anthony finished with 15…

New York may have lost more than a game. Point guard Chauncey Billups left with 51 seconds remaining, and doctors told him the injury was a strained left knee or thigh muscle…

Boston trailed 51-39 at halftime but rallied to take a 66-64 lead early in the fourth. Stoudemire then scored 12 of the Knicks’ next 18 points to power them to an 82-78 lead with 2:46 remaining.

Commentary: Wild end to Celtics win over Knicks

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.

2011 NBA Playoffs first round schedule

The 2010-11 NBA regular season is in the books, with all 30 teams in action Wednesday night. The NBA playoffs begin Saturday.

The first round matchups in the East are: Bulls vs Pacers, Heat vs 76ers, Celtics vs Knicks, and Magic vs Hawks.

The West’s first round matchups are: Spurs vs Grizzlies, Lakers vs Hornets, Mavericks vs Blazers, and Thunder vs Nuggets.

The complete first round series-by-series NBA playoffs schedule is here.

Which Celtics will Knicks face in first round?

Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News reports:

The Knicks have drawn the Celtics for the playoffs, but which Celtics team?

The one that has ruled the East in two of the last three seasons, winning the 2008 title and getting to a Game 7 in Los Angeles last June before falling to the Lakers?

Or will it be the one that we see now, in a state of mourning for the last seven weeks after nearly staging a mutiny because Danny Ainge traded away Kendrick Perkins?

If it’s the first Celtic team that went 41-14 with Perkins, the Knicks can expect a short playoff run. Four games should do the trick.

But that team is probably gone, for good, meaning the Knicks might just be able to make things interesting. Maybe win a couple of games. Anything better for the Knicks, including a series win, and Ainge will get chased out of Boston.

Pacers guard Lance Stephenson demoted for violating team rules

Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star reports:

Lance Stephenson’s ongoing immaturity issues could be pushing him closer to the door with the Indiana Pacers.

Any chance of Stephenson playing in the final two regular-season games or the playoffs ended Saturday, when coach Frank Vogel said Stephenson was demoted for violating team rules.

“He’ll be the fourth point guard through the playoffs,” Vogel said. “This is being done for disciplinary reasons. T.J. (Ford) will be our third point guard.”

Stephenson had been expected to play in the final two games but will assume the role formerly held by Ford, who has not played since Jan. 28.

Vogel declined to say what Stephenson did to warrant those actions. He did say, though, that there are no legal issues involved with Stephenson.

Landry Fields in a slump

Chris Sheridan of ESPN reports:

Going into tonight’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, it has been six straight games since Landry Fields had more than three buckets in a single game.

You have to go back to two Sundays ago, on the afternoon the Knicks scored 9 points in the first quarter and lost in Milwaukee, to find a game in which Fields was productive (13 points on 5-for-11 shooting) on the offensive end of the floor.

Getting production out of Fields was not a problem before the big trade, but he has struggled to fit into a rhythm with the new players in the Knicks’ rotation, and he has steadily been losing minutes to Anthony Carter, Roger Mason, Bill Walker and Toney Douglas at the 2-guard spot.

Heat work Eddy Curry out

Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News reports:

Could Eddy Curry be joining the big three in Miami?

The former Knick, who came to epitomize the team’s failings under Isiah Thomas, worked out for the Miami Heat in recent days in a move that could foreshadow his signing with the team for the playoffs.

“Pat (Riley) worked him and about a half-dozen guys out as part of a big picture look,” a team spokesman said Saturday without elaborating. “Anything else is pure speculation.”

According to a Yahoo! Sports report, Riley put Curry through his paces in Chicago and scheduled the 7-footer to visit Miami early next week for another workout and a physical.

Knicks had interest in a Jerome Jordan return

Chris Sheridan of ESPN reports:

If the Knicks felt a certain player named Jordan could help them in the playoffs, he would have been at practice Friday.

But Jordan, whose full name is Jerome Jordan (the center from Tulsa who the Knicks acquired last June after he was drafted at No. 44 in the second round by the Milwaukee Bucks), is going to spend the rest of the season in Serbia.

“He’s under contract over there, and there was some idea that maybe they weren’t doing the right things with him, and maybe we could get him. But I think now they’re straightened out, and so he’s playing over there,” team president Donnie Walsh said.

Jordan is shooting 73 percent while averaging 7.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in 15 minutes per game for KK Hemofarm of the Adriatic League.

Knicks edge Nets in MSG thriller

The AP reports:

Carmelo Anthony scored 39 points for the second straight game, including the tiebreaking jumper with 1:08 left, and the New York Knicks rallied from a 16-point deficit to beat the New Jersey Nets 120-116 on Wednesday night.

Chauncey Billups added 33 points, six rebounds and six assists, and Amare Stoudemire scored 23 points for the Knicks, who have won two in a row after a six-game losing streak and trimmed their magic number for clinching a playoff spot to three.

Anthony scored only two points in the fourth quarter after a 20-point third, but it was the basket the Knicks needed in the first meeting since they beat out the Nets in the race to acquire the All-Star forward.

Deron Williams had 22 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in his return from a six-game absence with an injured wrist, but was short on a potential tying jumper in the final seconds and appeared hurt again after going down trying to chase down his miss.

Anthony Morrow scored a season-high 30 points to lead the Nets. Brook Lopez added 26 points and Kris Humphries finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds, but New Jersey came up short in a game it desperately wanted to win.

Hornets sign Patrick Ewing Jr. to 10-day contract

The New Orleans Hornets announced today that they have signed forward Patrick Ewing Jr. to a 10-day contract. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ewing Jr. has played in 49 games this season with the Reno Bighorns and Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA Development League, averaging 17.7 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists.

Originally drafted 43rd overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 2008 NBA Draft, the 6-8 235 lb. forward was then traded to the Houston Rockets and later the New York Knicks with whom he participated in the 2008 preseason. After being waived by the Knicks, Ewing Jr. was signed by the teams’ D-League affiliate Reno Bighorns, where he spent the 2008-09 campaign and averaged 16.8 points and 8.9 rebounds in 30 games.

Ewing, the son of Hall of Fame center and current Orlando Magic Assistant Coach Patrick Ewing, played collegiately at Indiana University (‘03-‘04 and ‘04-‘05) before sitting out the ’05-’06 season while transferring to his father’s alma mater Georgetown University for his final two years of eligibility. In his senior season, Ewing Jr. was named the Big East Sixth Man of the Year with averages of 6.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.

The Hornets roster now stands at 15.