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Game 31: New York Knicks v San Antonio Spurs (Review)
Actual Score: 105-101
By: Malcolm Merritt
Email: mjmerritt23@gmail.com
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With 37.4 seconds left, Iman Shumpert
inbounded the ball to Carmelo Anthony.
The game was tied at 101. Anthony went into the post, passed the ball to J.R. Smith, and
he passed it back to Carmelo Anthony in the left corner of the court. The crowd
was rambunctious; the AT&T Center was shaking with anticipation. The air
was thick with a playoff-like scent, as each team had put it all the court.
Anthony rose up, the clock kept ticking. The ball soared towards the basket. He
missed. But, out of nowhere, Iman Shumpert comes in with a put back to give New
York a 2-point lead! The air was sucked out of the crowd and every Knicks fan
around the world watching the game was on their feet.
It was that kind of game from Iman Shumpert and the New York Knicks
(10-21) pulled off the upset in San Antonio
(25-8) as they held on, 105-101 in a game that was honestly their best all
around effort of the entire year. The last time these two teams met, San
Antonio simply manhandled New York at home. The Knicks clearly underperformed.
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| Iman Shumpert (21) reminded everyone why he was drafted in his 27-point outing Thursday night. |
All of the expectations that people had of New York were on
display as the Knicks simply did it all on their way to only their sixth road
win. It was an all around great effort from a team that was looking for a clean
slate. The Knicks were down by nine at one point in the second quarter, but
quickly turned the game around, heading into the half with a 52-47 advantage. New
York lead the game deep into the fourth quarter, at one point leading by 11, as
the Spurs took a 98-96 lead with two minutes to go. But New York’s will to win
overtook everything else as they pushed the ball into the paint and got timely
baskets from their key contributors.
Shumpert equaled Carmelo to lead the Knicks in scoring
with 27, a new career high, and for seemingly the first time this season,
Anthony didn’t have to do everything by himself.
Shumpert had been in a dreary slump this entire season as he
listened to trade rumors for much of the first quarter of the campaign. All his
potential gushed out Thursday night. Along with 27 points, he shot six for 8
from behind the arc, with two huge shots in the fourth quarter, the latter
being off a crazy sequence with the shot clock winding down, giving New York a
three point lead. He had 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals in 31 minutes. His
tenacious defense and ferocious play continually pumped energy into the Knicks,
as he put on a show in the best game of his career.
Carmelo Anthony finished with a double-double, adding 12
rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block and 4 assists to his point total in his first game
back from a sprained ankle. The Knicks got valuable minutes from other players
such as Amar’e
Stoudemire who provided an efficient 11 points and two blocks in 24 minutes
as well as 4 points from J.R. Smith who decided to do more things without
the ball in his hands. He only took five shots, but his two made-shots were
necessary shots in the fourth quarter as he dished 3 assists and grabbed five
rebounds, his 4th being the most important. With 8.6 seconds left,
after a constant effort from both sides to grab the loose ball off of a Belinelli
miss, Smith grabbed the ball and called a timeout, basically sealing the deal
for New York. Beno
Udrih, a former Spur himself, scored 10 points and also added 7 assists,
topping it all off with efficient and clutch free throw shooting.
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| New York came together in a much needed win. |
The one player that kept the Spurs alive was Marco Belinelli.
The former Bull came into San Antonio to replace Gary Neal. He
showed he could do that and more. In his best outing of his career, he scored
32 points, while shooting six for nine from beyond the arc. Everything seemed
to go his way, as his 3-pointers matched whatever New York did, constantly
stopping their momentum. Patty Mills and Matt Bonner
added additional pressure from the perimeter, propelling the Spurs to 14 three
pointers on 32 attempts. The Knicks contained Tony Parker, with
the defensive combination of Shumpert and rookie Toure’ Murray,
limiting him to 12 points and 7 assists.
The Knicks defeated the Spurs on the boards (40-34), in
three-point percentage (52.9% - 43.8%), field goal percentage (51.3% to 48.1%),
and Free throw percentage (90% to 68.4%). The Knicks totaled 20 shots from the
strike, which has been a problem for them over the course of the season.
With New York playing Friday night in Houston (21-13),
they are looking to build off their success and make this New Year as
fulfilling as their preseason expectations. New York is now 4th in
the Atlantic Division and 13th in the Eastern Conference.
Just to update you, if you didn’t know, New York cut Chris
Smith, whose place on the team was debated for a long time. He was quickly
replaced by their young center Jeremy Tyler who
averaged solid numbers on the Knicks D-League Counterparts, the Erie Bayhawks.
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