Knicks Thump Spurs 100-83; Wolves Top Nuggets 101-97
Carmelo Anthony scored 23 points and J. R. Smith had 20 as the New York Knicks scored a surprisingly easy win over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night in the NBA. The loss snapped a seven game Spurs win streak to drop them to 26-9 while the Knicks improved to 22-10. The Knicks stopped a two game losing streak with the win. Tim Duncan and Tony Parker were held to 11 points each in the game, well below their averages. Amare Stoudamire scored 10 points in his second game back as he works his way back from injury.
The Spurs will continue their road trip at the Philadelphia 76ers while the Knicks will travel down to the Orlando Magic on Saturday.
”They shot the hell out of it and I could see it wasn’t going to happen,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. ”Just too low on fuel and their defense was too good. Bad combination, and then they made shots, which makes it even worse.”
In Denver, the Denver Nuggets followed up a nice win over the Los Angeles Clippers with a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who were coming off a stinker the night before against the Utah Jazz. Alexy Shved and J.J. Barea led the Wolves with 17 points while Andre Kirilenko and Luke Ridnour chipped in 14 points each to improve to 15-14 on the season . Denver slipped to 18-16 and were led by Ty Lawson and Kosta Koufos with 15 points each.
On Wednesday the Phoenix Suns beat the 76ers 95-98. Goran Dragic led the Suns with 20 points as they improved to 12-21. The Sixers, led by Jrue Holiday with 16 points fell to 15-18.
The Houston Rockets beat the New Orleans Hornets 102-94. James Harden led the Rockets with 31 points and Omer Asik chipped in 21 points for the Rockets who are now 18-14. The Hornets fell to 7-25 on the season.
In an upset, the Brooklyn Nets thumped the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma 110-93. Kevin Durant was elected for the game for the first time in his career. He still led the Thunder with 27 points while Russell Westbrook had 26. Joe Johnson led the Nets with 33 points and Robin Lopez chipped in 25 as they improved to 17-15 on the season.
The Memphis Grizzlies went on the road and whipped the Boston Celtics 93-83. Mike Conley led the Grizzlies with 23 points as they ran their record to 20-9 while Boston fell to 14-17.
The Toronto Raptors continued their stellar play as of late with a rout of the Portland Trail Blazers 102-79. Toronto won their third game in a row and eighth in their last nine as they improved to 12-20 on the season after starting 3-19.
