After Chauncey Billups missed a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left and the Knicks hanging on to a four-point lead, Toney Douglas helped seal the deal.
The Knicks guard grabbed the offensive rebound, and 18 seconds later, Carmelo Anthony’s jumper in traffic essentially wrapped it up. Douglas actually assisted on that shot, too.
“Toney Douglas tonight,” coach Mike D’Antoni said, “was just absolutely great.”
Douglas was better than that. In the Knicks’ 114-108 win over the Bucks at the Garden, he sank 10 field goals for the first time in his career, shooting a brilliant 10-of-12 from the floor and 3-of-5 from 3-point range. Douglas finished with 23 points, three assists, three rebounds and two steals — one of the best games he’s played.
Not only that, Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles gushed about Douglas’ defense.
“Toney Douglas, he killed us,” Skiles said. “He came in in the first half and his defensive pressure really bothered us.”
Douglas has been one of the Knicks’ most inconsistent players, and just look at how he’s fared for the last four games. Against the Lakers on Feb. 11, he shot 1-for-6.
The next game, versus the Nets with Amar’e Stoudemire out, Douglas was a superb 8-for-13. Then against the Hawks in the final game before the All-Star break, he shot 1-for-5. Then came last night.
“I’m not going to shoot the ball well every night,” he said. “I would love to, but you’re going to have ups and downs.”
Douglas was 9-for-10 through three quarters last night, then canned a huge 3 from the wing with 3:07 left in the fourth that pushed the Knicks’ lead to six.
Billups got the assist, and Douglas — who might log more minutes now since Billups averages fewer minutes than Raymond Felton did — said Billups actually was a help to him when he was a Nugget.
“I could learn a lot from him. He actually helped out a lot during my rookie year,” Douglas said. “When we were playing against each other he was telling me what I was doing good and what I could do better, stuff like that. Toward the end of the game, I actually took his advice.”
After the game, Douglas drew more praise. Wrote Magic Johnson on Twitter, “Guards Toney and Chauncey were awesome.” –Additional reporting by Howie Kussoy