Knicks Bench Tells Sixers to Take a Seat

By Sean Kennedy

The Sixers jumped out to a big early lead for the second consecutive game, but this time they didn’t even wait until the second half to watch everything crumble. The Knicks outscored Philadelphia by 20 points in the second quarter, quickly turning an 8-point deficit into a double-digit halftime lead, and sending the hordes of Knicks fans who had invaded the Wells Fargo Center home happy with a 102-92 Knicks victory.

Leading the New York charge were two much-maligned members of the Knicks bench, Amar’e Stoudemire and J.R. Smith. Neither player missed a shot in the period, with Smith looking much more focused after being benched for his serial shoelace-untying and scoring double digits in the second quarter alone (14 on the game). Stoudemire dropped a game-high 21 points and threw back the clock with some powerful dunks and an array of hook shots in the lane. His efforts proved you don’t need working knees to score against an earthbound Spencer Hawes and the only-in-the-NBA-because-management-wants-to-lose Brandon Davies. Hawes’ head nearly exploded yelling at the ref for a travel call on Stoudemire (which was a travel), but when you let a guy make his first 8 shot attempts he’s going to get the benefit of the doubt.

While the Knicks couldn’t miss, it was an opposite story for the boys in blue, as Philadelphia missed 15 of their last 17 shots in before halftime. A team that couldn’t hit the Broad St. side of a barn losing ground against a squad hitting everything in sight, Sam Hinkie must have been rubbing in hands delightedly. Although the Sixers showed spirit in hanging around in the second half, they never got back within true striking distance. That second quarter basically wrote the epilogue on this chapter of the season.

Box Score

Notable Observations:

• It was a good Tony Wroten night, as he was able to attack the rim much easier against the likes of Andrea Bargnani and Stoudemire as opposed to Andre Drummond and Josh Smith. At the end of the first quarter, Wroten dribbled the length of the floor in just 3 seconds to get fouled at the bucket. I don’t have the numbers to back this up, but I’m pretty certain that qualifies as fast.
• As Brandon Davies received a post entry pass, Zumoff said he was getting a little sugar. Davies proceeded to miss two consecutive shots, getting blocked so hard on the second one that the resulting momentum caused him to fall down. That sugar wasn’t so sweet.

Tanking Implications:

There were positives to take away from the loss as Michael Carter-Williams did a better job orchestrating the offense with 7 assists against just 2 turnovers. That’s not to say he didn’t have his moment scoring the ball as well, including a two-handed flush in the lane over Kenyon Martin early in the contest. In addition to Wroten, James Anderson (tied for team-high with 17 points) also did a very nice job of going at the basket with the Knicks only rim deterrent, Tyson Chandler, not suited up. With the loss, the Sixers remained even with Sacramento and Utah in the win column and have lost 4 straight following their improbable 4-game winning streak on the road trip. This is why you tanking advocates needed to settle down. 4/5 tanks