NEW ORLEANS – Talk about a much-needed victory.
Off the court, the Knicks were involved in more embarrassing alleged shenanigans – a gay sexual harassment/discrimination lawsuit filed against center Eddy Curry. But they were hardly embarrassing on the court last night.
The Knicks avoided going winless on the four-game, eight-day southwestern road trip with a dignity-saving gem of a performance, rooted in defense, in a 101-95 victory over the Hornets.
David Lee scored 24 points, making 12 of 16 buckets, and grabbed nine rebounds, and Al Harrington shook off another sloppy shooting outing by hitting the dagger bucket. Harrington sank a 3-pointer from the left wing with 26.8 seconds left to seal the win, giving the Knicks a six-point lead and sending them home with smiles and a 14-22 record.
Still, moments after coach Mike D’Antoni’s post-game press conference, Curry came lumbering out of the locker room to address the beat writers and snuff out the charges made by his former driver, who is white and Jewish, that Curry had made sexual advances and used racial slurs.
“I’m shocked really. I can’t believe it went this far,” said Curry, who claimed his former driver is simply out for the money.
Only in the wacky world of the Knicks.
The win over the Hornets was crisp. The Knicks didn’t shoot particularly well (43 percent), but did a lot of the gritty things and played unselfishly, posting 30 assists, to squeak by with the win. The Knicks had suffered bad losses in Oklahoma City, Dallas and Houston before taking the final game of the trip.
“After the Oklahoma City game, knowing we had to play three playoffs teams in the West and [knowing] New Orleans might be the best one of out of the three, to get a victory tonight was huge,” Lee said. “To go on the road and play as hard as we had and not get a victory, would’ve been tough.”
New Orleans coach Byron Scott already had this game in the Hornets’ victory column. And so did his players. The day before, Scott told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, “This is a team we’re playing that we should win, no doubt about it.”
No doubt about it, the Hornets were terrible, sleepwalking through most of the game and allowing the road-weary Knicks to steal one. The Hornets shot 38.4 percent and their All-Star David West shot 6-for-20, thanks to Lee’s defense. Chris Paul awoke too late, though he notched 23 points.
Harrington was coming off a 1-for-10 outing in Houston, and needed this as a confidence booster. He finished 6-for-19, made all six of his free throws to notch 20 points.
D’Antoni had railed about the offense for nearly two weeks because the Knicks weren’t moving the ball enough. Last night they moved it and moved it.
Jared Jeffries posted six dishes, Quentin Richardson had eight and Chris Duhon had nine. That’s unselfish ball.
“The biggest thing is we had 30 assists,” D’Antoni said. “The other three games on the road trip, I don’t think we had 30 total. We’ve been stressing: Just don’t settle for shots.”
Richardson was a key. He only shot 2-for-7 but had seven rebounds to go with his eight assists.
“I know I’m not always going to score a lot of points, [so] I try to do whatever I can to help my team,” Richardson said. “It’s time we played with a sense of urgency.”
The Knicks had a 14-point lead with 10:42 left before they nearly blew it. The Hornets shaved the deficit to 3 or 4 points six times in the final 3:46.
Duhon missed a runner, but Lee hauled in a big offensive rebound that led to free throws from Richardson, who made 1 of 2 for an 87-82 lead with 3:19 left. On other end, with 3:00 left, Lee made a giant defensive play, slapping the ball from West on a drive.
Knicks 101 Hornets 95