NBA

Knicks beat Philly to start season 2-0 for first time in 13 years

Letdown? Not today at the Garden.

Coming off their gargantuan 20-point rout of the defending-champion Heat, Carmelo Anthony’s Knicks rolled on today without a speed bump at the sold-out Garden and dispatched the Sixers, 100-84, leading comfortably throughout.

There wasn’t the same emotion and electricity as Friday with the winning-one-for-the-city mentality in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy but this was plenty good enough.

Melo provided instant offense and tenacious defense early in the matinee to set the tone for the second straight game. The Knicks are now 2-0 – their first 2-0 start since 1999-2000.

Anthony, playing again at power forward, finished with 27 points and five rebounds, shooting an efficient 10 of 18. He blocked two Sixers on driving shots and dived into the stands in an attempt to save a loose ball.

“He’s reading the defense and taking what’s in front of him,” coach Mike Woodson said of Anthony. “He doesn’t have to force anyuthing. He’s too good a player for that.”

After a slow start, J.R. Smith hit three straight 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter to open up a 86-69 gap with 8:13. It made up for his early woes when he threw two awful passes and he wound up with 20 points and nine rebounds in 34 minutes.

It was another solid game for Jason Kidd, who had some nifty passes, harkening back to his Nets days. Kidd had 12 points and 6 assists. The Knicks shot 50.6 percent, again with solid ball movement. The Knicks made 11 more 3-pointers after hitting 19 in the opener.

The now-customary “Ra-sheed Wall-ace’’ chants started with five minutes left and the Knicks up 12 and Wallace was soon in, with Woodson kowtowing to the fans. Wallace even hit on a post-up in the final minutes.

The Knicks ended the first half with a flourish as Kidd intercepted a pass and flung it deep to Anthony for a breakaway layup in the final seconds. It gave the Knicks a commanding 57-44 bulge at halftime.

“They really moved the ball well,” Sixers coach Doug Collins said. “Those threes, they just string you out. It is so tough because they can go to Melo in the post and if you get double, you free up threes. Mike (Woodson) has them very cohesive.”

Anthony was terrific on both ends of the court and wound up with 15 points at intermission, making an efficient 6 of 9 shots. In the first quarter, Anthony wound up in the third row, hustling to save a ball from going out of bounds after blocking a Nick Young on the fastbreak. “Watch out man,’’ Melo yelled as he came crashing into the seats. It is the new Melo, risking his body to set an example. Earlier, Anthony swatted the ball away when Evan Turner rose on a driving layup.

“I’m trying to lead the pack in other areas other than scoring,” Melo said. “When my teammates see me out there, doing the little things that help us win, they feed off that energy, feed off the momentum and do the same thing…Everybody in the world knows I can score the basketball with the best of them.”

Anthony, playing at power forward with Amar’e Stoudemire out in a small lineup, smoked to the hole often to get his points. Raymond Felton scored all 11 of his points by halftime, with good penetration as he engineered an offense that shot 53.3 percent in the first two quarters.

“I’m trying to be inside out,” Anthony said. “Start down there. Take advantage of the post. Just taking advantage of what the defense gives me.”

Ronnie Brewer was also solid, scoring 9 points with 4 rebounds in the half, doing a lot of the dirty work on defense, too. Brewer drove and dished to Jason Kidd for a corner 3-pointer – the Knicks first bucket of the game.

“Everybody’s touching the ball,” Kidd said. “I think at training camp we had all the guys touching the ball and it becomes contagious. There’s multiple touches and you can’t guard the pass.”

The Knicks led, 31-25, after one quarter. Anthony showed a lot of variety on offense, driving to the bucket and hitting the midrange and finishing with 9 first-quarter points. He had 16 in the first quarter in the season opener Friday vs. Miami, setting the tone.

Knicks backup power forward Kurt Thomas tried to set a defensive tone early, but was flagged with a flagrant foul battering Sixers forward Evan Turner on a drive.

Knicks public address announcer Mike Walczewski switched up his pregame intro of Anthony, calling him by his proper “Carmelo Anthony’’ instead of “Melo’’ as he did in the opener. … Patrick Ewing will receive the inaugural Johnny Bach Award at Fordham tomorrow night at Grand Hyatt Hotel. Bach still is the all-time winningest coach at Fordham and one of the defensive masterminds behind the Bulls championship run in the 1990s.