Carmelo Anthony called last night’s game against the Kings a “must win game.” With the all-star break directly to follow and the team sporting a record 11 games under .500 you could probably say that the rest of the way for New York is must win. The team would be without the enigmatic JR Smith due to a fractured cheekbone he suffered in the game against Oklahoma City. Sacramento comes in to the game with the worst record in the Western conference and has lost 10 of their last 12.
Anthony, as is usually the case was the story showing off a dazzling scoring touch. He would finish the first quarter with 17 points on 7-9 shooting after missing his first two shots of the game. While Melo carried the bulk of the offensive load it was New York’s active defense that allowed for the team to build an early double digit lead.
It wasn’t until Kings star C, DeMarcus Cousins went to the bench for a breather that the Kings would get back into the game and you could attribute that to the play of former college standout, Jimmer Fredette who was absolutely on fire. The Knicks defense that was so good in the first was nowhere to be found when Fredette was on the floor as he scored 15 points in the first six minutes of the 2nd and just like that erased their double digit deficit.
The Knicks would once again give themselves some cushion in the third but you could feel that they were allowing the Kings to hang around aided by the Knicks inefficiency on offense which during one stretch missed 13 consecutive shots. New York suffered another injury blow as Iman Shumpert would leave the game in the third due to a hip injury but Amar’e Stoudemire did all he could as he played a season high 37 minutes and at times looked like the Stat of old fluidly hitting the perimeter shot off the pick & roll that made him so lethal in his earlier days. Stat would finish with 20 points & 8 rebounds on 10 of 15 from the field.
Sacramento had a big injury of their own when Cousins would leave the game for good with about 3 minutes to go in the 4th also with a hip injury and just like in the first half that meant it was “Jimmer time.” Fredette would immediately hit a couple of threes while New York would inexplicably either leave him open of fall back of the deadly sharpshooter from upstate New York.
Rudy Gay hit a clutch game tying bucket in the face of Stoudemire with, 20.8 seconds to go in regulation. Following a Sacramento foul and subsequent Knicks timeout, Mike Woodson would go where he almost always goes to in these situations. Isolation for Anthony who settled for a long contested jumped that clanked off the back rim. It’s worth noting that Melo had played all 24 minutes in the 2nd half and would eventually play all 5 minutes of overtime.
In the overtime it was all Sacramento as the Kings would build a 5 point lead on a couple of different occasions and the Knicks would get no closer than 3 points the rest of the way. The dagger came from 5’9” Isaiah Thomas who used a crossover on Raymond Felton to create space and calmly sunk the long jumper to seal it for the Kings.
Final
Knicks 101 Kings 106
Notes:
Fredette had a career high 24 points
Felton & Hardaway Jr shot a combined 6-23
Anthony recorded his 18th double double of the season
Sacramento had 5 players score in double figures
Wilson Caicedo: PureSportsNY