Wiz lose again(US Presswire)
NEW YORK (AP) - Shot after shot clanged off the rim, the crowd growing restless and eventually booing the home team.
Luckily
for the Knicks, the bad shooter was just an actor in a movie scene
being filmed at halftime. The real players had absolutely no problem
with the dismal Washington Wizards.
Carmelo
Anthony and JR Smith each scored 20 points in the Knicks' 108-87 victory
Friday night, their 10th straight over the NBA's worst team.
"With
teams like that who are struggling, you've got to jump on them early so
you don't give them any confidence, because at the end of the day they
are NBA players," point guard Raymond Felton said.
Tyson
Chandler and Ronnie Brewer each added 12 points for the Knicks, who
improved to 6-0 at home and beat the Wizards for the ninth straight time
at Madison Square Garden. Both winning streaks are their longest active
against one team.
New York improved to
11-4, its most wins in a month since going 11-6 in March 2000. The
Knicks hadn't won 11 in November since winning 12 in 1972 on the way to
their last NBA championship.
"That's a big
month for us. Coming into the season, my goal and our goal was to at
least get 10 wins for this month," Anthony said. "Any time you can get
10 wins in a month, especially the first month, that's always good."
Chandler
finished with 10 rebounds but his 5-of-8 shooting represented a cold
night after the NBA's leading shooter had made 16 of 17 over his
previous two games and came in shooting 71.8 percent for the season.
Felton
scored 11 points for the Knicks, who shot 53 percent from the field in
their third straight game without starting guard Jason Kidd, who remains
out with lower back spasms.
Jordan Crawford
scored 17 points and rookie Bradley Beal had 14 for the Wizards, who
beat Portland 84-82 on Wednesday for their lone victory after an 0-12
start but were never in this game after the first 10 minutes.
"We
made it hard on ourselves," Crawford said. "They did a good job of
moving the ball and the ball kind of stuck in our hands. We didn't do a
good job of moving it."
The Knicks led by
nine after one and kept increasing their lead, going ahead by double
digits throughout the second half and by as much as 23, improving to
17-1 at home in the regular season under coach Mike Woodson.
Woodson
won only 13 games in 2004-05, his first season in Atlanta, and he said
the key to the Hawks' improvement through the years was their improved
play at home.
"The last two years in Atlanta
we were a force at home and now that I'm here in New York, you're
talking about trying to win the division, you can't lose at home,"
Woodson said.
The only time the home fans
grew impatient was at the half, during the filming of a scene for the
upcoming Vince Vaughn film "Delivery Man." After a hard foul, the actor
playing the Knicks star had to shoot two free throws but couldn't make
both, the boos growing louder with each miss until he had to be shaken.
The real Knicks had nothing to worry about.
Leading
by one, the Knicks closed the first quarter with a 10-2 spurt for a
26-17 lead, holding Washington to 32 percent shooting. The Knicks then
made 12 of 19 shots in the second, getting eight points from Pablo
Prigioni and building a 13-point advantage before going into the locker
room up 57-46 after Anthony rattled in a jumper at the buzzer.
Kevin Seraphin finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Wizards, who had 17 turnovers against 11 assists.
"Our
handling of the ball, whenever we turn it over like that it puts them
out in transition, and they have shooters who spread the floor and that
puts you in a bind," Wizards coach Randy Wittman said.