NEW YORK — Carmelo Anthony scored 22 of his 30 points in the first quarter, and the New York Knicks held on after he departed with a sprained left ankle to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-107 on Thursday night in Coach Mike D’Antoni’s return to Madison Square Garden.
Making three-pointers and moving the ball to open shooters, things they often struggled to do under D’Antoni, the Knicks won for the eighth time in nine games and improved to 9-0 at home for the first time since the 1992-93 season.
Meanwhile, things are starting as poorly for D’Antoni in Los Angeles as they ended in New York. The Lakers, still without Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, were never really in the game while losing their fourth in a row and falling to 9-14.
Raymond Felton scored 19 points, and Tyson Chandler and J.R. Smith added 18 apiece for the Knicks.
Kobe Bryant had 31 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers. Metta World Peace finished with 23 points and Dwight Howard had 20.
The Lakers cut a 26-point deficit to 113-107 when World Peace converted a three-point play with 1:27 remaining, but the Knicks took more than a minute off the clock while twice grabbing offensive rebounds on the next possession before Chandler made a free throw with 18 seconds to play.
Anthony, playing at an MVP level after he struggled last season under D’Antoni, made his first 3 three-pointers, nearly reaching his NBA leading average of 9.7 points per first quarter before 2 1/2 minutes were even gone. Bryant tried to keep pace but the Knicks couldn’t be stopped, making 17 of 23 shots (74 percent) and building a 41-27 advantage.
Anthony finished two shy of the franchise record for points in a quarter, held by Willis Reed and Allan Houston. And he was easily on pace to pass Bryant’s building record of 61 points, though he didn’t even get halfway there after playing just five minutes of the second half.
When it was over, D’Antoni shook hands with Mike Woodson, who replaced him on the New York bench, and a couple of Knicks players before walking off after another rocky night with the Lakers.
He’s often been considered an offensive expert whose teams are poor defensively, but right now the Lakers don’t really look good on either end.
The Knicks made 22 of their first 30 shots overall and started 8 of 10 behind the arc. Even when the Lakers tried to defend, it didn’t work. Howard batted the ball away from Rasheed Wallace in the post, so Wallace simply retrieved it in the corner, hit a three-pointer, and the lead ballooned to 58-32.
It was 68-49 at the break, but the Knicks lost some of their flow when Anthony went to the locker room with 6:41 left in the third quarter and a 17-point lead. He had landed awkwardly after being fouled by Howard on a drive to the basket, and though he was able to stay in to shoot the free throws, Anthony was removed at the next whistle.
D’Antoni was loudly booed during pregame introductions, Knicks fans who appreciated the rugged defensive teams of the 1990s never truly embracing his offense-first style. D’Antoni said he enjoyed his time in New York and said earlier Thursday the Knicks, who lead the NBA in three pointers per game and fewest turnovers, were playing the way he’d like his team to play.
Sure enough, they made 12 three-pointers and turned it over just six times.
D’Antoni couldn’t get the Knicks’ offense going last season and tensions between he and Anthony seemed strained, though both denied it, when he resigned in March with the team threatening to fall out of the playoff race.
In another NBA game, Devin Harris scored 20 points, Josh Smith added 18 and the surging Atlanta Hawks beat the Charlotte Bobcats 113-90 in Atlanta. Gerald Henderson finished with 17 points and Ramon Sessions had 16 for Charlotte. The Hawks are 12-3 since losing three of their first five games this season. Atlanta has won two in a row and five of six.
THURSDAY’S GAMES
Atlanta 113, Charlotte 90 New York 116, LA Lakers 107 San Antonio at Portland, (n)
TODAY’S GAMES - All times Central
Dallas at Toronto, 6 p.m.
Philadelphia at Indiana, 6 p.m.
Golden State at Orlando, 6 p.m.
LA Lakers at Washington, 6 p.m.
Milwaukee at Cleveland, 6:30 p.m.
Detroit at Brooklyn, 6:30 p.m.
Boston at Houston, 7 p.m.
Minnesota at New Orleans, 7 p.m.
Sacramento at Oklahoma City, 7 p.m.
Utah at Phoenix, 8 p.m.
Memphis at Denver, 9:30 p.m.
Summaries
KNICKS 116, LAKERS 107 LA LAKERS (107) World Peace 7-15 6-7 23, Jamison 1-3 0-0 3, Howard 8-11 4-6 20, Duhon 1-6 0-0 3, Bryant 10-24 6-6 31, Hill 0-1 0-0 0, Meeks 3-11 4-4 12, Sacre 0-1 0-0 0, Clark 0-1 0-0 0, Ebanks 5-11 5-6 15. Totals 35-84 25-29 107.
NEW YORK (116) Brewer 3-6 0-0 6, Anthony 10-15 7-8 30, Chandler 5-5 8-14 18, Kidd 1-2 2-2 5, Felton 9-26 1-2 19, Smith 7-14 2-2 18, Novak 4-5 0-0 12, Wallace 3-5 0-2 8, Prigioni 0-0 0-0 0, White 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 42-79 20-30 116.
LA Lakers .................27 22 31 27 - 107 New York ..................41 27 25 23 - 116 3-Point Goals-LA Lakers 12-37 (Bryant 5-11, World Peace 3-6, Meeks 2-9, Jamison 1-3, Duhon 1-5, Ebanks 0-3), New York 12-25 (Novak 4-5, Anthony 3-5, Smith 2-4, Wallace 2-4, Kidd 1-2, Brewer 0-2, Felton 0-3). Rebounds-LA Lakers 55 (Bryant 10), New York 45 (Kidd 9). Assists-LA Lakers 13 (Bryant 6), New York 25 (Felton 8). Total Fouls-LA Lakers 21, New York 20. Attendance-19,033 (19,763).
HAWKS 113, BOBCATS 90 CHARLOTTE (90) Kidd-Gilchrist 4-9 0-0 8, Mullens 1-8 0-0 3, Biyombo 2-3 0-2 4, Walker 6-15 1-1 13, Taylor 3-6 4-4 12, Haywood 1-2 0-0 2, Henderson 6-11 5-6 17, Sessions 5-8 4-4 16, Gordon 2-9 2-2 7, Adrien 0-0 0-0 0, Diop 2-3 0-0 4, R.Williams 1-3 0-0 2, Warrick 1-2 0-1 2.
Totals 34-79 16-20 90.
ATLANTA (113) Stevenson 3-5 0-0 9, Smith 8-12 1-3 18, Horford 5-9 1-3 11, Teague 2-5 2-3 6, Korver 5-7 1-2 13, Morrow 0-0 0-0 0, L.Williams 5-10 0-0 13, Harris 7-11 2-4 20, Pachulia 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 5-8 6-8 16, Tolliver 0-2 0-0 0, Scott 1-3 0-0 2, Jenkins 2-3 0-0 5. Totals 43-75 13-23 113.
Charlotte ..................19 24 31 16 - 90 Atlanta .....................30 30 31 22 - 113 3-Point Goals-Charlotte 6-21 (Sessions 2-3, Taylor 2-4, Gordon 1-3, Mullens 1-3, Henderson 0-1, R.Williams 0-2, Walker 0-5), Atlanta 14-29 (Harris 4-8, Stevenson 3-5, L.Williams 3-7, Korver 2-3, Jenkins 1-1, Smith 1-2, Tolliver 0-1, Teague 0-2).
Rebounds-Charlotte 37 (Kidd-Gilchrist, Biyombo 6), Atlanta 54 (Johnson 8). Assists-Charlotte 22 (Walker 6), Atlanta 28 (L.Williams 9). Total Fouls-Charlotte 18, Atlanta 14. Attendance-13,090 (18,729).
WEDNESDAY’S LATE GAME JAZZ 99, SPURS 96 SAN ANTONIO (96) Green 5-10 0-0 12, Duncan 8-17 6-9 22, Blair 0-4 0-0 0, Parker 8-18 6-7 22, Neal 2-9 0-0 5, Splitter 5-9 0-0 10, Ginobili 2-6 2-2 8, Diaw 4-7 0-0 9, De Colo 0-3 0-0 0, Joseph 0-0 0-0 0, Bonner 0-1 0-0 0, Mills 3-3 0-0 8. Totals 37-87 14-18 96.
UTAH (99) Ma.Williams 1-5 0-0 2, Millsap 10-15 4-6 24, Jefferson 10-18 1-1 21, M. Williams 3-9 1-2 8, Foye 5-10 0-1 13, Favors 2-4 2-4 6, Hayward 7-14 1-1 19, Watson 0-2 0-0 0, Kanter 3-4 0-0 6, Carroll 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 41-84 9-15 99.
San Antonio ..............28 16 27 25 - 96 Utah ........................22 31 18 28 - 99 3-Point Goals-San Antonio 8-19 (Mills 2-2, Ginobili 2-3, Green 2-4, Diaw 1-3, Neal 1-5, Duncan 0-1, De Colo 0-1), Utah 8-19 (Hayward 4-6, Foye 3-6, M. Williams 1-4, Watson 0-1, Ma.Williams 0-2).
Rebounds-San Antonio 53 (Duncan 21), Utah 50 (Millsap 12). Assists-San Antonio 18 (Parker 7), Utah 27 (Hayward 6). Total Fouls-San Antonio 15, Utah 16. Attendance-18,710 (19,911).
Sports, Pages 24 on 12/14/2012