Knicks110 Hornets105T
he fight is not about women sportswriters in the locker room. The fight is no longer about who is right, Jeff Van Gundy or the fired Ernie Grun-feld. The fight is not even between Patrick Ewing and his aging body. The fight is simple now.
It’s between the Knicks and their opponents and is a fight for the last playoff spot.
For the first time all season the battle is clearly in focus. Despite all that, the Knicks had to hang on for dear life, nearly blowing an 18-point second half lead before surviving with a 110-105 victory last night over the Hornets at the Garden.
The victory snapped a four-game losing streak and moved the 22-21 Knicks into a tie for eighth place.
Charlotte had won nine straight. Dave Checketts is 1-0 as the new general manager. Ernie Grunfeld can at least take heart in the fact his acquisition, Marcus Camby, delivered 18 points, three blocks, 11 rebounds. The last key rebound coming off his miss from the foul line, setting up Patrick Ewing, who finally made his “patented” shot, bouncing in a runner in the lane with 14.9 seconds left that gave the Knicks a 106-102 lead.
“It was good to finally get a bounce to go our way,” noted Camby.
Ewing said he had no doubt the shot would fall even though it took five bounces.
“That’s the shot I was criticized for the other day,” said Ewing, who evidently is pouting over his miss in Philly earlier in the week that cost the Knicks a game. “That’s a shot I’ve been shooting my whole career. It dropped. That’s my shot, I’m going to take it. If they double me I’m going to pass it, if I have that shot I’m going to take it.”
The Knicks led by 14 in the fourth quarter as they survived a 35-point fourth quarter by the Hornets and a 66-point second half.
The game was spiced by a shoving match between Ewing and Derrick Coleman late in the third quarter.
“Derrick should have been kicked out, he threw a punch,” Ewing said.
“I didn’t punch him, I just shoved him,” Coleman said. “That’s just part of the game.”
“We had a pretty good game, we came out on fire,” said Ewing, who scored 26 points on 10 for 17 shooting. Allan Houston led the Knicks with 30.
The Ewing incident occurred at the 2:06 mark of the third quarter and the Knicks leading 77-53. Coleman shoved Ewing and Ewing gave him a little shove back, prompting Charlie Ward to get in the middle and play the role of Dick Bavetta. Ewing swatted Ward away as the point guard kept at it, not allowing Ewing to go back at Coleman, saving Ewing from getting tossed.
“Normally,” Ward said, “I’m away from the play and I kept telling him he’d be thanking me later. You’ve got to have somebody who stays calm in those situations. That’s my life.”
Ewing thanked Ward on the way to the locker room, saying, “You saved me some money.”
“I respect Charlie,” Ewing said. “He did what he felt was right.”
The incident actually ignited the Hornets, who eventually cut the lead to 103-102.
Three days off worked wonders for the Knicks early. Before the game the Van Gundy said that the team would need to win five of the final eight games “to have a chance” of making the playoffs. One down, four to go with seven to play.
This was a game the Knicks had to have, considering their next three games are on the road against the Heat tomorrow in Miami, in Charlotte Monday and Atlanta Wednesday.
Everything went the Knicks’ way most of the night. The Hornets were without Eddie Jones, who missed the game with a lacerated finger, and Elden Campbell was ejected in the third quarter with the Knicks up, 70-54. Campbell hit Kurt Thomas with an elbow to the back of the head, knocking Thomas to the ground.
The Knicks got a first- quarter lift from Houston, who scored 11 points.
“I really think he’s just missing shots that he is capable of making,” Van Gundy said of Houston. “I don’t think it’s any deeper than that.”
Houston missed his first two shots but then made his next five in the first quarter as the Knicks ran out to a 32-23 lead. The 32 points marked the biggest first quarter of the season for the Knicks. Houston made only one basket in the second quarter, but Latrell Sprewell got hot and paced the Knicks with eight points, 12 in the half. Ewing also had 12 in the half.
By the end of the half the Knicks led 53-39, despite the chiding of ex-Knick Anthony Mason, who was getting on Ewing for his defense of Campbell and Camby for being traded for toughman Charles Oakley.
“We got a good bounce, you know,” Van Gundy said. “You like to have a close game that you finish, but you don’t like to have it the way we did, where we really didn’t defend them well in the second half.”