Knicks Drop Pistons 121–100

Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points Sunday as the New York Knicks (9-3) routed the Detroit Pistons (3-11) 121–100 at Madison Square Garden.

The loss was in sharp contrast to the Knicks’ play Friday night in the 131–103 blowout loss at Houston. Sunday’s win broke a small, two-game losing streak.

“We wanted to bounce back,” said Anthony, according to a report on the team’s website. “Got back to playing the defense we know how to play. We really locked in on that end of the court.”

The Knicks held the Pistons to 44 first-half points and never trailed after the first quarter.

Anthony, meanwhile, hit his first six shots of the game—all coming in a personal 15-point first quarter—as the Knicks led 32–22, 12 minutes into the game and never looked back.

Mike Woodson’s squad broke the game open with a big run late in the second quarter outscoring Detroit 26–10 over a seven-minute stretch to end the half. The Knicks’ lead at the break was 64–44 and ‘Melo, who averages 25.6 points per games, already had put up 21.

“I was just trying to get off to a good start,” said Anthony. “If I can get off to a good start then that helps everybody else out on the basketball team.”

After building the 20-point halftime lead though, the Knicks came out flat in the second half. Three turnovers highlighted the first two minutes of the third quarter. Two minutes later, Detroit forward Kyle Singler hit a three to that cut the lead to just 10 at 67–57, prompting a quick timeout by Woodson.

Detroit would get as close as eight, at 77–69, before the Knicks put the clamps on defense—while continuing to fire away from perimeter.

The Knicks hit 17 of 33 three-pointers on the day, including five from forward Steve Novak.

“The way our team moves the ball, the point guards to do such a good job and you’ve got to give Carmelo so much credit because he draws the defense so much in the way he scores the ball,” said Novak. “It’s our job to be on the perimeter and knock down shots and hopefully we can get him a few looks to.”

Anthony had no problems with his own look, hitting four of five three-pointers.

Brooklyn Up Next

The Knicks finally get their long-awaited showdown against the newly-relocated Brooklyn Nets (8-4) Monday night in the brand new Barclays Center. The Knicks certainly seem to be looking forward to it.

“If we don’t get up for this game then I don’t know what game we'll get up for,” said Anthony, who was born in Brooklyn. “I don’t really want to put too much emphasis on the game. We want to win, we’re going over there to win.”

The second-place Nets made a big splash in the offseason re-signing Deron Williams while acquiring Joe Johnson at the other guard position.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.