Knicks-Spurs Preview

By PAUL DIGIACOMO
Posted Nov 14 2012 7:55PM

In order for the New York Knicks to remain the only unbeaten team in the NBA, they'll have to win in a place that has not been kind to them for nearly a decade and defeat a club that continues to amaze in regular-season games.

New York tries to end a nine-game losing streak in San Antonio on Thursday night as it takes on a Spurs squad looking to win for the 18th time in 19 non-playoff contests.

The Knicks opened a three-game trip with a 99-89 victory over Orlando on Tuesday night, improving to 5-0 for the first time since opening the 1993-94 season with seven consecutive wins en route to an appearance in the NBA finals.

New York's success can be attributed to its solid play on both ends of the court, as it is among the league leaders with 103.4 points per game and an average of 87.8 allowed.

The Knicks, who have won each of their games by double digits, held the Magic to 13 points in the fourth quarter after taking a one-point lead into the period.

"Defense, we buckled down," said forward Carmelo Anthony, who scored a game-high 25 points. "We kind of slowed them down, kept them off the glass rebounding. Once we had a chance to rebound the basketball, get out and make some shots, we didn't turn back from there."

Starting guard Raymond Felton had 21 points and reserve JR Smith chipped in with 21 of his own on 9-of-14 shooting. Smith is second on the Knicks with a career-best average of 18.2 points, trailing Anthony's 26.8 per game.

"It's great. It's a great feeling," said Smith, who is 13 for 18 from 3-point range. "We want to keep it going."

Doing so may be tough in San Antonio, where New York has averaged 88.6 points since a 105-97 win March 18, 2003. Plus, the Spurs have jumped out to a 7-1 start after ending the 2011-12 regular season on a 10-game win streak and winning their first 10 in the playoffs before losing four straight to Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals.

Including playoffs, San Antonio has won 22 of 24 on its own court.

"Road wins are tough to get, so you gotta really be locked in and focused as a unit," said coach Mike Woodson, whose Knicks are in a stretch of playing six of seven away from home. "... The schedule is what it is. We can't run from it."

The Spurs concluded a 3-1 trip Tuesday night with an 84-82 victory over the Lakers as Danny Green hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 9.3 seconds left.

San Antonio is also one of the better defensive teams in the NBA, holding opponents to 92.6 points per game, and it helped against Los Angeles as the Spurs shot a season-low 38.9 percent.

"That's a great win, we were not playing very well, missed a lot of wide-open shots," said point guard Tony Parker, who scored a team-high 19 points while shooting 8 for 18. "... (Thursday) is going to be a great game, another one."

Felton, unbeaten Knicks rally past Spurs 104-100

Posted Nov 16 2012 4:07AM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) Instead of watching their season-opening winning streak come to a messy end, the New York Knicks served notice that they can't be counted out in the fourth quarter.

Raymond Felton scored 25 points and New York stayed undefeated by rallying late to beat the San Antonio Spurs 104-100 on Thursday night.

Trailing by 12 with 7 minutes left in the game, the Knicks (6-0) closed on a 22-11 run to remain the NBA's only unbeaten team.

"It shows me that this team is for real," New York coach Mike Woodson said. "We beat a great team tonight - a well-coached team. It's the first time I've ever won in San Antonio, so I feel pretty good about that. It's tough to win here."

J.R. Smith added 17 points, Jason Kidd had 14 and Tyson Chandler 13 for the Knicks, who snapped a nine-game skid in San Antonio. Felton, Smith and Kidd alone outscored the Spurs 26-25 in the fourth.

Tony Parker led San Antonio (7-2) with 19 points and 12 assists. Kawhi Leonard added 16 points and Tim Duncan had 14 points and 14 rebounds.

San Antonio grabbed its largest lead at 89-77 with 7:14 remaining when Tiago Splitter's free throw completed a three-point play. That capped a 13-point run by Splitter in the fourth after he failed to score while playing just a few minutes through the first three periods.

"He had some great minutes in there," Duncan said. "He got himself rolling there for a little while and kind of got us on the board."

Woodson called a timeout before Splitter shot the free throw, and the chaos that ensued was exactly what the Knicks needed.

"I called one timeout, and it was kind of disarray in the timeout," Woodson said. "I was screaming and they were screaming, but we were still in the game."

Kidd then sparked the rally with a pair of 3-pointers that pulled the Knicks to 89-85 with 5:49 remaining.

"He does it every single time," Chandler said. "I said it last game, whether it is a steal or a 3-pointer or something (else), he seems to always get it done."

Smith and Kidd hit consecutive 3s to give the Knicks a 100-95 lead with a minute left.

San Antonio missed seven of its last nine shots and had two turnovers in the final 2 minutes. The Spurs had won 18 of 19 regular-season games against New York.

The late defensive push offset an uncharacteristic start by the Knicks.

After holding their first five opponents to 87.8 points per game, the Knicks allowed the Spurs to set a quick tone when Danny Green opened with consecutive backdoor layups off assists from Parker and Duncan.

The Knicks kept pace behind Felton, who had nine points and two assists in the opening period while shooting 3 for 5 from the field. Felton's first 3-pointer gave the Knicks a 29-24 lead with 2 minutes left in the first period.

Steve Novak and Rasheed Wallace hit back-to-back 3s to extend New York's lead to 45-38 with 7:21 left in the first half. New York opened 6 for 7 on 3s.

DeJuan Blair smiled at Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and gave him a double fist bump before taking the court for his first start of the season. The move paid off. Blair had two points and an assist while denying Carmelo Anthony the ball defensively and hounding the Knicks All-Star into missing his only attempt in the opening 8 minutes.

Anthony appeared frustrated by the lack of touches, shaking his head and laughing when the Knicks rotated the ball away from him late in the second quarter.

Anthony got aggressive after that possession, taking four shots in the final 3 minutes of the first half. He was blocked twice by Duncan under the basket. The first block resulted in Anthony's own follow-up basket and the second led to a 3-pointer by Green with 0.8 seconds that gave the Spurs a 57-55 lead at halftime.

Anthony finished with nine points on 3-for-12 shooting from the field.

"There was a point in the game where I huddled everybody up and said use me as a decoy. And it worked out there," Anthony said. "Pop did a great job of not even double-teaming me, but triple-teaming me; every time I touched the ball, making me see three guys."

NOTES: Spurs guard Gary Neal missed the game after cutting his right index finger while lifting his luggage before Tuesday night's game against the Lakers. Neal was able to play 8 minutes in San Antonio's 84-82 win over Los Angeles, but the cut grew worse. ... Including the playoffs, San Antonio has won 23 of 26 games at home. ... Duncan had his 736th career double-double, extending his lead among active players.

Notebook: Knicks 104, Spurs 100

Tim Price, for NBA.com
Posted Fri Nov 16, 2012 12:04 AM - Updated Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:30 AM

THE FACTS: Raymond Felton drew in the defense on two key plays in the final two minutes -- both times setting up wide-open 3-pointers by J.R. Smith and Jason Kidd -- as the Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 104-100 on Thursday at AT&T Center. New York overcame a 12-point deficit with 7:14 to go and stayed unbeaten.

Felton scored 25 points and had seven assists, three of those passes coming in a six-and-a-half minute stretch of the fourth quarter when New York (6-0) went on a 25-6 run. Felton made up for Carmelo Anthony's off game. Anthony,, the league-leader in scoring, had a season-worst nine points (17 points less than his average).

The Spurs (7-2) got 19 points and 12 assists from Tony Parker, but Parker went 0-of-4 when the Knicks went on their big run in the fourth quarter.

QUOTABLE: "It shows me this team is for real. We beat a great team tonight."

-- Knicks coach Mike Woodson.

THE STAT: After starting 6-of-7, the Knicks survived an 0-of-9 streak from the 3-point line. They recovered by hitting 4-of-6 the rest of the way. New York came into the game first in the league in 3-point percentage (42.6).

TURNING POINT: The Spurs had their largest lead at 89-77 with 7:14 remaining. But Felton got loose for a layup and was fouled . He missed the free throw, but his penetration seemed to open things up for New York. On the next two trips down the floor Kidd (14 points, including 4-of-6 3-pointers) hit threes off assists from Felton. It was the start of the Knicks' 25-6 run.

QUOTABLE II: "There's a reason why they're (6-0). They lead the league in steals. They lead the league in lowest points allowed. They lead the league in 3-point percentage. It's a hell of a team. They won the game. I think we ran out of gas. They just didn't have enough left in the tank after that road trip [to the West Coast for four games in the past week]."

-- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

HOT: Felton hit 10-of-20 shots from the floor, which is a huge turnaround from his last three games. He went 18-of-47 in those, a 38-percent clip.

NOT: Anthony was 3-of-12, which sunk below his previous season-worst of 10-of-28 in the season-opener against Miami.

FANTASY SPOTLIGHT: Tim Duncan scored 14 points and had 14 rebounds with three blocked shots. It's his fourth game in a row with at least double-figure scoring, nine rebounds and three blocks.

GOOD MOVE: The Knicks were in a serious funk from long distance, missing nine in a row from the second quarter till midway in the fourth. Though Felton hit both of his threes to start the game, he didn't take it upon himself to force up threes to make up for the lack of production. Instead he went inside, made a layup, and brought the defense in with him. That created openings on the outside, and Kidd responded by hitting 3-of-4 threes in the fourth quarter and Smith hit his only try of the fourth.

BAD MOVE: The Spurs gave Anthony so much attention that the door was open for another Knicks player to walk through. It turned out to be Felton, who attacked weak side when Spurs double teams on Anthony gave Felton the extra space. When he drove the lane and the defense collapsed, the Spurs rotations couldn't get out in time to cover the open threes from Kidd and Smith.

ROOKIE WATCH: Pablo Prigioni (Argentina) played six-and-a-half minutes in the first half for the Knicks and had two points, two assists, a rebound and a steal.

NOTABLE: It's the first time the Knicks have won in San Antonio since March 2003, a winless streak of nine games. ... DeJuan Blair started for the Spurs and played eight-and-a-half minutes in the first quarter but none afterward. ... Gary Neal led the Spurs with 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting two games back at Portland, but he played less than eight minutes Tuesday in Los Angeles and did not play at all tonight with a cut on his right index finger (he cut it on his luggage during the recent road trip). ... Knicks players sang a rousing version of "Happy Birthday" to injured Amar'e Stoudemire in the locker room after the game. Stoudemire, who made the trip while wearing a full brace on his left leg for his injured knee, turns 30.

UP NEXT: For the Knicks, Friday @ Memphis, Sunday vs. Indiana, Tuesday @ New Orleans. For the Spurs, Saturday vs. Denver, Monday vs. L.A. Clippers, Wednesday @ Boston.

• Knicks: Shumpert, Stoudemire
• Spurs: Joseph

• Knicks: --
• Spurs: --

• Lead Changes: 17
• Times Tied: 9

• Arena: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
• Officials: #23 Jason Phillips, #42 Eric Lewis, #70 Brent Barnaky
• Attendance: 18581
• Duration: 2:08