Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Thunder vs. Knicks

The Knicks lack of execution in the last minutes of the fourth quarter offensively were awful. With Carmelo Anthony on the bench for another game, the Knicks failed to score in the final 1:49 as J.R. Smith missed two jump shots in the last 32.9 seconds. OKC won, 95-94, at the Garden.
“It was a great fight,” Stoudemire said after the Knicks fell to 37-22. “We didn’t make a shot (in the fourth). We played great defensively. We got stops we needed but we didn’t make a shot.”
The Knicks only scored 13 points in the fourth quarter. Stoudemire made one shot in the fourth while Smith attempted nine.
    Smith had given a huge spark off the bench, making 14 of 29 shots overall and scoring 13 points in the third quarter as the Knicks built an 81-75 lead. But Smith missed his last four shots while Stoudemire was attacking Serge Ibaka and drawing fouls. Stoudemire played just five minutes and 36 seconds of the fourth quarter and earned a trip to the foul line, making all four of his free throws in the period, including two with 1:50 remaining to give his team its final lead at 94-93. Nothing Woodson tried in the final two minutes worked for him. He had subbed Kenyon Martin for defensive purposes with Stoudemire at the line, but Martin was whistled for his sixth foul when he fouled Kevin Durant 20 feet from the basket. Durant’s two free throws with 98 seconds remaining provided the winning points for the Thunder. Which is why he is the best player on the Thunder in my opinion.