by Peter Walsh / @goinginsquad
Just ’cause:
Tito Lopez freestyles for Dr. Dre. Get familiar.
Knicks 100 (22-10), Spurs 83 (26-9)
After a boring, poor shooting first half the Knicks woke up in the third and fourth quarters to hand the fatigued Spurs a 17-point loss. New York led 67-60 after three and opened the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run capped by a Steve Novak three-pointer with ten and a half minutes left that. The Knicks continued to pour it on from there and led by as many as 25. J.R. Smith ignited the crowd with a huge dunk off an alley-oop from Pablo Prigioni (6 points, 9 dimes) to put a stamp on his current impressive individual streak. Smith has scored at least 20 points in six of the Knicks last seven games and has stepped up big time with the team plagued by injury. Right now, he is in a three-way tie for Sixth Man of the Year with Jarrett Jack and Jamal Crawford. Carmelo Anthony scored 23, Steve Novak scored 15, Tyson Chandler had a 10-point, 14-rebound double-double and New York held San Antonio to under 40 percent shooting from the field. In a bizarre turn of events, Stephen Jackson hurt his ankle early in the first quarter after tripping over a waitress who was serving NYC Mayor, Michael Bloomberg. He did not return.
Timberwolves 101 (15-14), Nuggets 97 (18-16)
J.J. Barea dropped 12 of his 17 in the fourth quarter with Kevin Love looking on from the bench with a sprained finger to lead the T’Wolves to a road victory over Denver. The game was close throughout with neither team leading by more than ten . While knotted up at 91 late in the fourth quarter, Luke Ridnour nailed a three to give Minnesota the lead. After a Denver miss on the following possession, Barea came down and nailed another three to put the T’wolves up six and ice the game. Six different Timberwolves scored in double figures including Andrei Kirilenko (14 points), Love (12 points, 17 boards) and Alexey Shved (17 points on 7-13 shooting, 5 dimes). Six Nuggets also scored in double figures including Andre Miller (who scored his 15,000th career point), Ty Lawson (16) and Andre Iguodala (14 points, 7 boards, 6 dimes).
