NBA: Knicks win & keep Wizards winless on road

Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

Amare Stoudemire shook the basket with his dunks. Raymond Feltonfound his shooters on the wings, and knocked down his own shots when left open.

The New York Knicks looked right again, and it sure helped that the Washington Wizards do everything wrong on the road — even something as simple as getting dressed Monday night.

Stoudemire ended a mini-slump with 30 points, and the Knicks snapped a six-game losing streak and dropped the Wizards to 0-21 on the road with a 115-106 victory.

“We knew how important this game was,” Stoudemire said. “We all pretty much showed the urgency to get this win.”

Felton ended his dismal stretch with 17 points and 15 assists as the Knicks (23-21) avoided falling back to .500 with what would have been their longest skid of the season — and with Miami visiting Thursday. They beat Washington for the seventh straight time at Madison Square Garden and sixth in a row overall, sweeping the series for the first time since going 4-0 in 2003-04.

“Everything was clicking tonight,” Felton said. “It was one of our better games.”

Nick Young scored 22 points for the Wizards, now more than halfway to the NBA’s first winless road mark in an 82-game schedule. They are closing in on the longest road skid to open a season, 29 straight losses by the Dallas Mavericks during the 1992-93 season.

The Wizards are still a long way from the 1990-91 Sacramento Kings, who lost their final 37 road games and finished 1-40.

“I’m not going to lie about that. If you lose on the road, you’re going to think about it. You watch SportsCenter, you’re going to see what everybody’s talking about: you not winning road games. It gets tough,” rookie John Wall said. “But for us to get them to stop talking about it, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do on the road and get one.”

Wall had 18 points, nine assists and seven rebounds, but the Wizards committed 20 turnovers that led to 24 points for the Knicks.

They also had one wardrobe malfunction. Rookie reserve Kevin Seraphin began the game with his shorts on backward and had to change in front of the bench during a first-quarter timeout as his teammates surrounded him.

Stoudemire had been held to 18 points in each of the Knicks’ last two losses after scoring 20 or more in 26 consecutive games, but was 13 of 23 and added nine rebounds.

But the bigger problem lately may have been Felton, who might’ve wrecked his All-Star hopes by going 23 for 79 from the field in the last five games. He was 7 of 14 Monday and the Knicks turned it over only 11 times.

New York finally put it away midway through the fourth, holding Washington to one field goal in more than 5 1/2 minutes during an 11-4 run that turned a four-point lead into a 110-99 advantage.

Wilson Chandler finished with 25 points and Danilo Gallinari had 17 for the Knicks, who finally got their offense going again after a tough road trip — with some help from the woeful Wizards.

“When we got [Chandler] and Gallo shooting the ball the way they do, guys coming off the bench contributing, Amare doing what he does, me getting everybody the ball, that’s when we’re at our best,” Felton said. “Then our defense was clicking, we were getting rebounds, we were pushing the ball. I think we can play with anybody when we do that.”

The Knicks’ locker room board noted that the Wizards would turn it over, ranking near the bottom of the league, and sure enough they coughed it up 10 times in the first quarter, leading to 12 points that helped New York build a 33-26 lead.

“You can’t turn it over 20 times and beat people on the road,” Wizards coach Flip Saunders said.

But down 13 early in the second, Wall went to the bench and the Wizards surged back behind their reserves. Rookies Trevor Booker and recent NBA Development League call-up Mustafa Shakur were on the floor as Washington put up 36 points in the period and led by as many as five before the Knicks tied it at 62 at the half.

Stoudemire played the whole third quarter, throwing down a couple of powerful dunks en route to 15 points. The Knicks led 93-91 after a potential tying dunk by Seraphin was ruled after the buzzer.

by STATS LLC and The Associated Press