Anthony had trumpeted his trust in Jackson when he re-signed in 2014 and reaffirmed it months later, even as Jackson continued trading away key players from the best team Anthony ever played on in New York.

Reminded of that recently and asked if he still trusted Jackson, Anthony stopped well short.

”I trust the process,” he said, mimicking Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers.

The process isn’t going well for Jackson in New York.

The Knicks are 23-34, 12th in the Eastern Conference and on pace to miss the playoffs for the third time in Jackson’s three full seasons as president of basketball operations. He’s made his relationship with Anthony worse and hasn’t made the Knicks better, and a guy who could do little wrong as a coach just can’t get it right as an executive.

Maybe Jackson can swing a trade to fix things before Thursday’s deadline.

Or maybe he’ll just never fix the Knicks.

If Jackson is planning anything, it remains a mystery. He hasn’t spoken to reporters covering the Knicks since his preseason press conference in September – backtracking from his vow to be accessible when he took the job – and isn’t expected to before the deadline. He has made only three postings on Twitter all season.

Yet he’s still made plenty of noise.

He angered LeBron James by referring to his friends and business partners as a ”posse” in an ESPN story. And he upset some of the league’s other power players with his actions toward Anthony – which could prove damaging when trying to lure free agents. Jackson has either appeared to endorse or refused to distance himself from articles criticizing his best player and has largely cut off communication between them – after saying when he was hired that he planned to focus on ”how players are treated” and ”the kind of culture that’s built.”

Hall of Fame finalist Tracy McGrady told reporters this weekend he couldn’t remain quiet the way Anthony has.

”I’m not going to let you disrespect (me) in the public’s eye like that,” McGrady said. ”You’re not going to be sending subliminal messages about me like that and I don’t respond to that. I don’t operate like that. I’m just not going to do it. And then you hide and don’t do any media? You leave everything for me to talk about? Nah, that’s not cool.”

Jackson retains the support of Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan, who said in a recent ESPN Radio interview that he would not fire Jackson during the two-plus years that remain on his contract. (Both sides have an option to terminate the deal after this season).

Dolan didn’t even express much disappointment in the results, even though the Knicks had their worst season ever in Jackson’s first season and are 72-149 since the start of 2014-15.

”He was the best guy we thought we could find to run the New York Knicks,” Dolan said.

Maybe if he’d been hiring Jackson to coach, as Jackson’s 11 championships are a record for coaches. But there were questions about how he would do as an executive with no experience, and the answers haven’t been good.

He fired Mike Woodson and replaced him with first-time coach Derek Fisher, who lasted just 1 1/2 years. Starters Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton were traded in one deal, and J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert went in another early the next season. They were all mainstays on the Knicks team that won 54 games and reached the second round of the playoffs not even two years before Jackson was hired in March 2014.

Now all that’s left is Anthony, and it certainly seems Jackson wants him gone, too. He would have to find a workable deal, hard enough given the 32-year-old Anthony’s salary and age, then get him to waive the no-trade clause he gave Anthony when he re-signed him.

If not, maybe Jackson himself would leave this summer – though Dolan said he had no indication that was the 71-year-old Jackson’s plan. But he insists he can’t coach for health reasons and doesn’t appear to enjoy scouting and dealing with agents, essential parts of his job.

He must be disheartened that the work he put into this team hasn’t paid off. Jackson hired Jeff Hornacek to open up the offense after two years of his favored triangle, traded for Derrick Rose, and signed free agents Joakim Noah, Courtney Lee and Brandon Jennings. None has sparked a turnaround, and drafting Kristaps Porzingis remains Jackson’s only inarguable success.

Jackson played on the last championship Knicks team in 1973 and said when he was hired what it would mean to build another winner here.

”It would be a capstone on the remarkable career that I’ve had,” Jackson said.

There’s still time for that.

But these days, Anthony probably isn’t the only one who no longer trusts in Jackson.

The post Nearly 3 years into the job, Jackson hasn’t fixed Knicks appeared first on IdealCapper.

The New York Knicks’ prolific scorer was certainly not suffering from All-Star envy when he was initially left off of this season’s Eastern Conference roster. In fact, Anthony conceded after an All-Star practice on Saturday that he was ”a little jealous” of friends and family he’d planned to join on a short vacation to Cuba and Puerto Rico during nearly a week off from the regular season.

That was before Commissioner Adam Silver called on ”Melo” to replace injured Cleveland star Kevin Love on the East squad.

At least All-Star weekend happens to be in a world-renowned tourist hot spot – during Mardi Gras, to boot.

Anthony said he was still excited about being an All-Star for a 10th time, adding he still appreciated ”what a big deal it is.”

He added being around other All-Stars, where there are so many other story lines pulling attention and scrutiny away from him, ”is definitely therapy for me.”

”This is a break for me to come here and not have to deal with my situation or our organization,” he said.

It’s just that Anthony was hoping to have time to relax with family this weekend in an environment in which he and loved ones could thoughtfully discuss what might be best for the 32-year-old forward at this point in his career. His Knicks contract, which runs through two more seasons, has a no-trade clause, but he hasn’t ruled out waiving it.

”It’s a conversation that can’t happen overnight,” Anthony said. ”It’s multiple conversations, multiple aspects that play a role in that conversation. So I was looking forward to just kind of getting away from the game and kind of exhale a little bit and re-evaluate my situation. Just kind of get away from all of it.”

There have been reports that LeBron James might like to have Anthony not just as a teammate during Sunday night’s marquee event, but also in Cleveland before Thursday’s NBA trade deadline. When the Knicks resume their regular season that same day, they play at Cleveland.

Anthony, averaging 23.4 points per game this season, expects to be playing against the Cavaliers that night.

”I hope so,” Anthony said. ”We’ll see what happens, but I plan on being there.”

Being there is one thing. Which uniform he’s wearing is another. But Anthony isn’t ready to be pinned down on whether a change in clubs would be the best move.

”I honestly don’t know,” Anthony said. ”To say I don’t think about it, I’d be wrong. I’d be lying to you. I think about it. I think about it a lot. I think about kind of what’s best for me, what’s best for the organization. What’s out there. … I do think about that stuff.”

The post Anthony: Wanted to get away, but All-Star a break from drama appeared first on IdealCapper.

Saving their season would be more about effort than execution.

“Tonight it was just one of them days where you just got to leave it out there on the basketball court,” Carmelo Anthony said.

Now they have to do it two more times.

Anthony scored 28 points and the Knicks avoided elimination in the Eastern Conference semifinals with an 85-75 victory over the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 on Thursday night.

Reserves J.R. Smith and Chris Copeland each had 13 points for the Knicks, who trail 3-2 and will need a victory Saturday in Indiana to force a seventh game back here Monday. They are trying to become the ninth NBA team to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a series.

“I was totally impressed because we met the challenge,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “I think as a coach you come into games like this and you want to see who’s going to step up and make plays, and I thought we did that tonight. We were the better team in terms of doing that.”

Anthony, who didn’t make a basket in the fourth quarter of either game in Indiana, made a jumper midway through the fourth quarter after Indiana closed within four points. He followed with two free throws, Raymond Felton made a layup, and the Knicks were never in jeopardy again.

Paul George had 23 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Pacers. They played without point guard George Hill because of a concussion and committed 19 turnovers.

“We’ve just got to play more solid. There’s no other way to put it,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said.

George battled foul trouble and couldn’t contain Anthony quite as well as he had while the Pacers easily won the previous two games.

Anthony made his first two shots as New York raced to a 7-0 lead in a game it never trailed. He finished only 12 of 28, but got plenty of bench help.

“We didn’t shoot the ball very well but we made shots at the crucial time,” Anthony said.

David West had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who were trying to reach the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2004.

“We didn’t play well. It was a bad game for us and we were still there,” George said.

The winner will face the defending NBA champion Miami Heat in a series that will start Wednesday.

New York didn’t really shake its scoring slump, shooting only 41 percent from the field, but put together a few runs during the game to open just enough space against a Pacers team that shot 36 percent and was a dismal 19 of 33 at the free throw line.

They clearly missed Hill after learning about four hours before the game they would be without him.

Vogel said Hill was hurt after a collision with Knicks center Tyson Chandler during the first half of Indiana’s 93-82 victory on Tuesday. Hill finished the game and scored 26 points, but experienced some headaches and showed concussion symptoms since and wasn’t able to pass the league’s concussion tests in order to play Thursday night.

The Knicks went back to their regular lineup, reinserting Pablo Prigioni, after going with a bigger group in Game 4 in a futile effort to match Indiana on the boards. The smaller group did a better job, getting outrebounded only 43-40.

“We’re not going to go out without fighting,” Chandler said.

The Knicks finally opened it up midway through the third quarter with a 12-4 run, started by Smith’s bank shot and featuring a 3-pointer and follow shot from Copeland, who got more playing time while Woodson gave little to veterans Amar’e Stoudemire and the slumping Jason Kidd, who missed his only shot and remains scoreless in the series.

“Coaching is a feel. It’s not always what players want at the end of the day, it’s about winning,” Woodson said. “That’s all I’m in it for.”

Anthony made a jumper and a 3-pointer on his first two shots, and Iman Shumpert followed with another jumper for a 7-0 start. Smith got a big ovation when he checked in, which grew much louder when he made his first shot, dribbling back behind the arc for a 3-pointer that made it 17-12 with 2:56 left in the opening quarter.

Smith has endured a miserable stretch since elbowing Boston’s Jason Terry in the fourth quarter of Game 3 in the first round. Suspended for Game 4, he hasn’t relocated his shot since, hitting 28 percent in the first four games and has been criticized for not being focused after he was seen out a nightclub with singer Rihanna the night before Game 1 — a day game.

He was only 4 of 11, but hit the jumper that started the Knicks’ run in the third quarter.

“Still didn’t shoot the best but it always helps coming home and playing in front of these fans,” Smith said. “Hopefully the little bit of rhythm that I did get carries me over.”

The Knicks extended their 19-15 lead after one to 32-23 on Copeland’s 3-pointer with 7:06 remaining in the second. The Pacers chipped away for most of the half but couldn’t take the large in part because of their sloppy free throw shooting, going 8 of 16 in the half that agonizingly wouldn’t end when both Chandler and the Pacers’ Sam Young committed fouls more than 30 feet from the basket in the final 2.4 seconds.

Game notes
Kidd is 0 for 8 in the series, part of a 0-for-17 skid that began with Game 3 against Boston in the first round. The 40-year-old point guard, surely headed for the Hall of Fame, is 3 of 25 in the postseason and hasn’t scored since hitting a 3-pointer against the Celtics in Game 2 on April 23. He played 5 minutes and Stoudemire played 6½. … The Phoenix Suns are the last team to win a series after trailing 3-1, beating the Los Angeles Lakers in 2006. The Brooklyn Nets forced Chicago to a seventh game in the first round but dropped Game 7 on their home floor. … West was 5 of 13 in the first half. The other four Indiana starters were 5 for 23.

The post Carmelo Anthony helps Knicks down Pacers to stay alive appeared first on IdealCapper.

Anthony scored 40 points and the Knicks got key contributions from J.R. Smith and Raymond Felton during a 19-5 fourth-quarter run that sparked New York to its 10th straight victory, 95-82 over Atlanta on Wednesday night.

“Melo is smart enough to know that if he’s doubled, he’ll sacrifice the ball,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “And we’ve got enough shooters around him that are making big shots. That opens it up for him even more. And when he gets going like he did tonight, they’re not going to leave him alone very often.”

Anthony, who scored 50 in his last game at Miami, scored 26 in the first half. He commanded more defensive attention in the second half, which left opportunities for Smith, who scored 19, and Felton, who scored 14. Felton’s quickness to the basket resulted in three straight scores during a 12-2 streak that turned a tie game into an 84-74 Knicks lead that was never threatened.

“A lot of (Anthony’s) points came off the bounce, with just two or three dribbles, and then a quick pull-up,” Woodson said. “When he got doubled, he got the ball out. It was kind of nice to play off him tonight.”

Atlanta forward Al Horford admitted, “He hit a lot of tough shots. I think he was very comfortable out there. We probably should have tried to pressure him more.”

Anthony made 17 of 27 from the field and was 5 for 6 at the line. He also had five rebounds and three assists, with only one turnover.

“The rhythm was there and I wanted to see if I still had it going,” Anthony said. “It was just one of those nights once again. I feel like when I have the opportunity, I just want to take my time and take it when I’m open and then find the open man when I’m doubled.”

The game was tied at 72 with 9:48 left when New York took control. The Knicks outscored the Hawks 23-10 the rest of the way, as Felton scored 10 in the final period.

“I think our coverages were bad,” Hawks guard Jeff Teague said. “I should have backed up a little bit on Raymond Felton and let him shoot a contested shot. But I got up a little bit and he used his speed to get by me.”

The win puts New York in sole possession of second place in the Eastern Conference.

“This team is playing for something,” Woodson said. “We know every game counts. We’ve had our ups and downs because of injuries, but we’ve just got to finish this regular season out.”

Atlanta lost the opportunity to move into a tie for fourth place in the Eastern Conference and wasted a 25-point effort by Kyle Korver, who came up two points short of his season high.

“They were switching a lot of things trying to take away Josh (Smith) and Al and I was able to get some looks in the first half,” Korver said. “I tried to knock them down.”

Korver moved into third place on the all-time list for consecutive games with a 3-point basket. Korver passed Reggie Miller at 10:54 in the first quarter when he made a 3-pointer from the right side. He’s now connected for a trey in 69 straight games. Korver is still a long away from catching Dana Barros (89 consecutive games), but is within distance of Dennis Scott (78) and Michael Adams (79).

“We played a very hot basketball team,” Hawks coach Larry Drew said. “Particularly Carmelo, who’s playing at a very high level right now, shooting the ball extremely, extremely well. I thought there were times we defended him well. He still made shots.”

Game notes

Atlanta forward John Jenkins missed his third game since suffering a concussion against Boston. … Atlanta’s Devin Harris was not available because of foot injury. He had rehab treatment on Wednesday. … The Syracuse men’s basketball team attended the game. The team is in town to compete in the NCAA Final Four. … Also at courtside was comedian Conan O’Brien.

The post Carmelo Anthony nets 40 as Knicks drop Hawks, up streak to 10 appeared first on IdealCapper.

The shot was good.

For Anthony and the New York Knicks, the outcome was even better.

Relying entirely on jumpers, Anthony tied his career high with 50 points and the Knicks won their ninth straight game, topping the injury-depleted Miami Heat 102-90 on Wednesday night.

“I felt good tonight,” Anthony said.

There was no arguing that.

Anthony finished 18 of 26 from the field, taking two dribbles to free himself from Shane Battier and make his last shot with 16.9 seconds remaining to get to 50 and send the Knicks’ bench into hysterics. It was the third time he scored 50 in his career, and it came with Miami’s LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers all sidelined by injuries.

“I think just from the start of the game, it’s a feeling that you just have while you’re out there on the court,” Anthony said. “Sometimes you get off to a good start and then you get cold the rest of the game, but tonight wasn’t one of those cases.”

No, it was not.

He made his first seven shots, and the fact that he had 37 points before notching any other statistic of note — no rebounds, assists, steals or blocked shots until the third quarter — let everyone in the building know that he was all about a scoring spree.

And the Heat had no answers.

“It’s an inopportune time to announce my candidacy for defensive player of the year,” Battier said. “Carmelo had a hell of a game. … That’s a game that drives the analytics guys crazy because he didn’t attempt a shot within 15 feet of the basket. Most nights, we’ll take that every single time. And he made a ton of shots. Made a ton of shots. And that’s to his credit.”

J.R. Smith scored 14 and Raymond Felton added 10 for New York.

Chris Bosh scored 23 points for Miami, which beat San Antonio on Sunday without James, Wade and Chalmers, but managed only 32 second-half points against the Knicks. Mike Miller scored 18, Ray Allen finished with 16 and Norris Cole had 14 for the Heat, whose 17-game home winning streak was snapped.

The Knicks beat the Heat in three of their four regular-season matchups. They likely would not meet again before the Eastern Conference finals.

“I don’t think that team will lack confidence against anybody,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s just the nature of who they are.”

Miami’s magic number for clinching home-court throughout the NBA playoffs remained at five, and the Heat already have the No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference wrapped up. The Knicks now lead Brooklyn by five games in the race for the Atlantic Division title.

It was only Miami’s second loss in its last 31 games.

Much of the star power was taken out of the equation more than eight hours before game time, when the Heat announced that James, Wade and Chalmers would not play. James has a sore hamstring, and Wade and Chalmers are dealing with ankle sprains.

All are listed as day-to-day.

“The No. 1 thing, obviously, is try to get as healthy as we can,” Spoelstra said. “Obviously, that’s a priority. From there, we have time to still try to improve — not just stay in rhythm, but to improve, and also get these guys an opportunity that haven’t been getting minutes to play in these meaningful minutes. We didn’t script San Antonio or this like this to happen, but that’s what this league is about. It’s unpredictable.”

Anthony surely did not mind their absences.

He made three shots, a combined 65 feet of swished jumpers, in the game’s first 2:17 as the Knicks ran out to an 8-0 lead. Plenty of blue-and-orange shirts in the Miami crowd roared, and the early indications were that Anthony was on his way to a monster night and the Knicks were on their way to a blowout victory.

That assessment was half-right.

“Unbelievable,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “He just refused to let us lose.”

Anthony came in averaging 27.5 points and was practically there by halftime with 27 on 9-for-12 shooting — a display the Knicks absolutely needed, since Miami more than held its own without James, Wade and Chalmers.

After trailing by as many as nine early, Miami actually roared back to lead 58-50 at the half. Miller and Cole combined for 30 at the break; Miller’s 18 were five more than he had scored in any game this season.

Anthony — who had one more field goal than every other Knick managed, combined, in the first 24 minutes — didn’t exactly cool off at halftime. By the time the third quarter was 4 minutes old, Anthony was up to 37 points.

“We actually played pretty good defense on him,” Miller said.

Anthony’s first rebound came with 7:02 left in the third, and his first assist came as the clock was expiring to end the period, setting up Steve Novak for a 3-pointer from the right corner that allowed New York to take a 78-76 lead into the final 12 minutes.

Anthony actually went 10 minutes without scoring, then made two jumpers — the second a 3-pointer — 40 seconds apart, giving the Knicks a 95-88 lead with 3:32 left.

The Heat had tied the game twice in the fourth, but never led after Novak’s 3 that closed the third.

“My thing is to try to be aggressive, make shots,” Anthony said. “When you make shots, it makes the game so much easier.”

Game notes

It was the fourth time in 25 career games, including playoffs, that Anthony eclipsed the 40-point mark against the Heat. … Wade and James looked on intently as the Heat showed a video to promote the looming playoffs after the third quarter. Wade shimmied his shoulders a bit afterward, and James started to nod at one of the final images — his sideline dance in the final seconds of Game 5’s title-clinching win over Oklahoma City last June. … Rapper Flo Rida was at the game, as was actor Andy Garcia and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. … Of the Knicks’ nine remaining games, six are against likely playoff-bound teams.

The post Carmelo Anthony scores 50 points as red-hot Knicks top Heat appeared first on IdealCapper.

It’s 40 minutes of trapping and shot challenging, of closing off angles, of trusting teammates.

“We showed,” senior guard Brandon Triche said, “that defense wins games.”

Yes, the Orange D certainly does.

With a second suffocating performance at the East Regional, No. 4-seeded Syracuse shut down No. 3 Marquette 55-39 Saturday to earn coach Jim Boeheim his fourth trip to the Final Four — and first since a freshman named Carmelo Anthony helped win the 2003 NCAA championship.

“A tremendous, tremendous defensive effort,” Boeheim said.

Fittingly, a matchup between schools from the soon-to-break-apart, rough-and-tumble Big East became quite a struggle on the offensive end. Syracuse (30-9) was led by senior forward James Southerland’s 16 points. Michael Carter-Williams, a 6-foot-6 guard who is out front in the zone, was named the regional’s top player after accounting for 12 points, eight rebounds, six assists, five steals and only one turnover Saturday.

Marquette (26-9) hadn’t scored fewer than 47 points all season — and, indeed, put up 74 in a victory over Syracuse on Feb. 25. But this time, Marquette kept turning the ball over, seeing its shots blocked or just plain missing.

The Golden Eagles’ 39 points were a record low for a team in an NCAA tournament regional final since the shot clock was introduced in 1986.

“They beat us from start to finish. We collectively tried everything we knew to try,” Marquette coach Buzz Williams said. “It is the zone, and it is the players in the zone.”

Much like what happened Thursday in the regional semifinals, when Syracuse knocked off top-seeded Indiana by limiting it to a season-low output, too.

“I don’t think we’ve played as good defensively as these last two games,” Triche said. “We held some good teams down.”

Marquette’s 39 points Saturday were the fewest in the shot clock era for an NCAA tournament regional final. Here’s a look:
Points Team Year
39 Marquette (Syracuse, 55-39) 2013
45 Memphis (UCLA, 50-45) 2006
47 Oklahoma (Syracuse, 63-47) 2003
50 Navy (Duke, 71-50) 1986
51 Arizona (Utah, 76-51) 1998
— Associated Press

All told, Marquette made only 12 of 53 shots — 23 percent — and was 3 for 24 on 3-pointers. Vander Blue, who carried Marquette to the round of eight, was held to 14 points on 3-for-15 shooting.

“They cover ground really good. You’ve got to get the ball in the middle, you’ve got to play inside out, you’ve got to get to the free-throw line and wear them down with the 3-pointer when you can,” Blue said. “They’re really good at what they do in that zone.”

Consider these numbers through four games in the tournament: Syracuse is averaging 6.5 blocks and 10.8 steals, while forcing opponents into 29 percent shooting, including 15 percent on 3-pointers.

“We couldn’t get one to drop in from up close,” said Marquette’s Jamil Wilson, who was 0 for 5 on 3-pointers, 1 for 9 overall. “We couldn’t get one to drop in from outside.”

The next team to try to solve that defense will be the winner of Sunday’s South Regional final between Florida and Michigan. Syracuse is 3-0 in national semifinal games under Boeheim.

And to think: Exactly three weeks ago, in this very same building, Syracuse wrapped up its final Big East regular-season schedule before heading to the Atlantic Coast Conference with a bad-as-can-be performance in a lopsided loss to Georgetown. Syracuse’s 39 points that day were the Orange’s tiniest total in a half-century.

That was Syracuse’s fourth loss in a span of five games, a stumbling way to head into tournament play.

That night, Boeheim forgot to adjust his alarm clock to account for daylight saving time, and so showed up late for a pre-practice coaches’ meeting. His players, turned out, had organized their own session without supervision, starting the work it would take to get going in the right direction.

“I watched them for a few minutes and it was really a good thing. I thought our practices were really good after that,” Boeheim said. “You can turn things around in this game.”

Since then, Syracuse has won seven of eight.

“When you bounce back like that, that says a lot about your kids, your team and your character,” Boeheim said. “This is a heck of a bounce back.”

And the secret to success? Defense, naturally.

“We got the right personnel for each key position,” C.J. Fair said. “We got big long guards, we got big long forwards that can cover ground and our centers do a good job holding down the inside.”

Because of that, Syracuse really needed only one run on offense in the second half, making five shots in a row during a spurt that gave it a 41-28 lead with 9½ minutes left.

Last season, Syracuse fell a victory short of the Final Four, losing to Ohio State in the round of eight.

“We wanted to get over the hump,” Southerland said. “That’s what I told the guys: We’ve still got two more to go.”

With President Barack Obama — a basketball fan who picked Indiana to win the title — and NFL Rookie of the Year Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins sitting in the crowd, Syracuse harassed Marquette into missing 14 of its first 15 tries from beyond the 3-point arc.

Marquette started 1 for 10 overall on field-goal tries, with Blue’s 3-pointer about 1½ minutes in the only make. He celebrated as though it came at the end of the game, not the outset, punching the air and tapping defender Triche on the back while heading to the other end of the court.

After Blue’s 3, Marquette missed its next seven shots. There would be other such stretches. Six misses in a row. Six misses in a row. Even nine in a row.

The Golden Eagles also went nearly 6½ minutes without a single field-goal attempt in the first half. Forget about putting the basketball through the net; Syracuse was so smothering, Marquette did not even manage to shoot.

When Southerland hit a 3, off a pass and screen by Carter-Williams, the Orange led 24-18 at halftime.

After helping cut down the net to celebrate Saturday, Southerland was asked whether he thought this sort of thing was possible when his team was leaving the same arena on March 9 after losing meekly to Georgetown.

“We just did a good job of recovering from that,” Southerland explained, “and not sulking.”

The post Syracuse smothers Marquette with 2-3 zone, reaches Final Four appeared first on IdealCapper.

Left short-handed by a rash of frontcourt injuries, the Knicks are suddenly counting on Martin more than they ever imagined. Best of all, he’s coming up big.

Carmelo Anthony scored 37 points, Martin had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and the Knicks clinched a playoff berth with a 99-94 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Friday night.

“He means a lot to this team right now,” Anthony said of Martin, his one-time Denver teammate. “We need him coming down the stretch.”

Making his fifth straight start, Martin connected on his first nine field goal attempts, not missing until 1:40 remained in the fourth quarter.

“He stepped up big time,” New York coach Mike Woodson said. “He scored for us, he rebounded, had a few blocks. He did a little bit of everything.”

Veteran guard Jason Kidd, who once played with Martin in New Jersey, said the 35-year-old has been an invaluable addition following injuries to big men Amar’e Stoudemire (right knee), Tyson Chandler (neck), Kurt Thomas (right foot) and Rasheed Wallace (left foot).

“He’s a true professional,” Kidd said. “If we didn’t have him we would be in trouble right now. He’s playing big on both ends.”

Out of basketball before the Knicks came calling, Martin said he considers himself “blessed” to be back on the court and playing for a contender.

“I just tried to stay ready,” he said. “An opportunity came for me to come out and play. It’s unfortunate that it’s because of injury, but I’ll take it.”

J.R. Smith scored 14 points as the Knicks earned their 41st win. That guaranteed they’ll reach the playoffs for the third straight season, something they hadn’t done since a 14-year streak of postseason appearances from 1988 to 2001.

With 15 games left and playoff seeding still undecided, Woodson doesn’t want his team easing up.

“We can’t have any slippage, no matter who we play, because Brooklyn is not going anywhere and Boston is not going anywhere,” Woodson said.

The league’s second-leading scorer, Anthony has 57 total points in his past two games after missing six of the previous eight with a sore right knee. His 43 minutes were about 10 more than Woodson had hoped he’d play, but Anthony wasn’t complaining.

“I’ll take on that challenge, I love that challenge, I want that challenge,” he said. “I wanted to see what I could do, especially being out and not playing the way I know how to play.”

The defeat was a double blow for Toronto, which lost for the 11th time in 15 games and saw forward Rudy Gay leave in the second with a sore back. Gay did not return, and his status for Saturday night’s rematch in New York was not known.

Alan Anderson scored a career-high 35 points, DeMar DeRozan had 18 and Jonas Valanciunas 10 as the Raptors lost their third straight. Kyle Lowry led Toronto with 10 assists.

Down by 14 points midway through the third, the Raptors rallied to make a game of it in the fourth. A three-point play by DeRozan cut it to 84-82 with 6:17 left, but Anthony answered with a three-point play of his own, keying a 10-2 run that put the Knicks up 94-84 with 4:00 remaining.

A putback dunk by Terrence Ross cut it to 97-92 with 39 seconds left and, after Smith missed a pair of free throws, Anderson made two from the line, making it 97-94.

Anthony was fouled and made the first but missed the second, giving the Knicks a four-point edge. Jason Kidd grabbed the rebound when Ross’s 3-point heave came up short, and capped it by making one of two from the line.

Chandler (neck) did not travel with the team, remaining in New York for treatment. Woodson said he doesn’t know when Chandler, who last played March 13, will be cleared to return. The Knicks had earlier said they expected Chandler to miss about a week.

Raymond Felton’s banked 3 gave the Knicks a 25-15 lead with two minutes left in the first but Anderson scored five straight points as the Raptors cut it to 25-22 after one.

Gay headed to the locker room with a sore back at 7:04 of the second and the Knicks pulled away. Anthony and Kidd each scored six as New York outscored Toronto 25-15 to open a 50-37 lead at the half. The Raptors made five of 20 field goal attempts in the quarter.

“We just had a lot of open misses,” Anderson said. “We weren’t swinging the ball from side to side like we did in the previous two games against them.”

Anderson matched a Raptors record with 20 points in the third and Toronto made five of nine from 3-point range, but a turnaround, buzzer-beating 3 by Anthony gave the Knicks a 77-71 lead heading into the fourth.

Game notes

Stoudemire, Thomas and Wallace also skipped the trip to Toronto. … Iman Shumpert started for the New York after sitting out the second half of Wednesday’s win over Orlando with a sore left knee. … Mike James was the last Toronto player to score 20 in a quarter, doing it in the fourth against Detroit on Apr. 14, 2006. … Woodson expressed his sadness at the death of former Knicks captain Ray Williams, who died Friday at the age of 58. “It’s a major loss,” Woodson said. “He’s a part of our Knicks family.” … Actor Isiah Whitlock Jr. attended the game.

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That’s how long it took Carmelo Anthony to show he was back, pulling up comfortably for a 3-pointer on New York’s first possession.

“Big-time relief,” the Knicks coach said. “I mean, lets me know that Melo’s being Melo.”

And the Knicks looked like the Knicks from earlier in the season, before Anthony’s struggles halted their momentum.

Anthony scored 21 points after missing the previous three games with a knee injury, and the Knicks beat the Orlando Magic 106-94 on Wednesday night.

J.R. Smith had 22 points for New York, still short-handed in the frontcourt but looking much better with Anthony back. The NBA’s second-leading scorer hadn’t played since leaving the Knicks’ road trip last week to have fluid drained from the back of his right knee. He said it felt better right after going to the hospital after he had been feeling discomfort for weeks.

“I feel good, I feel healthy,” Anthony said. “I’m glad I went and got that procedure done so I put that behind me now.”

He moved well and shot 7 of 14 while grabbing eight rebounds as the Knicks closed in on a playoff spot they could wrap up this week.

“Any time you have a great scorer like that, it’s going to be tough for you. Not one person in the league, in the world can guard him 1-on-1,” Magic guard Jameer Nelson said. “So you’ve got to do different things and try to get him out of his rhythm. I thought he did a great job by being patient and taking shots when he wanted to or needed to, and passing it when the double-team came.”

The Knicks shot 53 percent and won their second straight after dropping the first four games of their five-game trip. All-Star center Tyson Chandler is expected to miss about a week with a bulging disk, and reserve forwards Amare Stoudemire, Rasheed Wallace and Kurt Thomas all could miss the rest of the regular season. But New York had no trouble despite using a small lineup that featured 6-foot-9 Kenyon Martin as the center.

Iman Shumpert, who joined Anthony, Martin, Raymond Felton and Pablo Prigioni in the lineup, sat out after hurting his knee late in the first half. He said he was scared after hearing a pop, having torn up his knee last spring, but trainers told him it was likely scar tissue. He sat on the bench in uniform and Woodson said he could have returned, but kept him out as the Knicks blew it open.

Tobias Harris and Andrew Nicholson each scored 14 points for the Magic in their fifth straight loss. They played without center Nikola Vucevic because of an illness in the second night of a difficult back-to-back, after falling by 22 at Indiana on Tuesday.

New York beat Orlando for the sixth straight time and swept the season series for the first time since 1997-98.

Anthony said he was feeling pain just before the All-Star break, more than a month ago. The knee became worse when the Knicks had games on back-to-back nights against Miami and Cleveland on March 3-4, and he fell to the court without contact while trying to catch a pass in the second game.

He missed the next three games, then came back. But he was clearly limited in losses at Golden State and Denver, totaling just 23 points, and he finally realized the knee needed more than just rest.

“I was worried because I didn’t really know what was the cause of it, what was going on,” he said. “I knew for sure that it wasn’t no ligament damage or anything like that, so I just wish that I could have gotten to the bottom of it quicker or we could’ve got to the bottom of it quicker.”

He had rejoined the team on the West Coast following the procedure but didn’t want to rush back, and determined he was ready Wednesday after feeling good over the last couple of days.

New York built a 22-7 lead after consecutive 3-pointers by Smith and Chris Copeland capped a 10-0 run. They led 26-15 after one, but Orlando got untracked with a 31-point second quarter, cutting it to 51-46 at the half.

The Knicks put it away midway through the third, getting two free throws and a follow shot by Anthony to start a 10-2 burst that extended a 10-point lead to 78-60.

“I think they’re the hardest team to defend in the NBA. With Melo and his ability to score and play the 4 and then with four shooters all around him, it’s hard to help out and get back. You saw tonight they made a lot of 3s,” Harris said. “They’re definitely a tough match-up team and that’s what makes them so good.”

Game notes

Woodson said he didn’t expect the Knicks to make any moves to fortify the frontcourt because Wallace and Thomas could be back around the start of the playoffs. And he said he still “absolutely” believes in the Knicks’ decision to load up on older players over the summer, believing the injuries happened because the veterans played more minutes than expected because of injuries to other players. … Thomas said he’d had a stress fracture in his foot in 2006 while playing for Phoenix and had learned recently it didn’t completely heal. … The Knicks wished director and leading fan Spike Lee a happy birthday between the first and second quarters. … Magic coach Jacque Vaughn was ejected from Tuesday’s game and said he didn’t want to discuss his feelings about Indiana’s physical play for fear of losing more money, smiling that his wife was mad about the fines that come with the two technical fouls he received during the loss to the Pacers.

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nthony returned to the floor Monday night for the New York Knicks after missing the previous three games with soreness in his right knee. He struggled in a 92-63 loss at Golden State, missing 11 of 15 shots in 34 minutes and finishing with 14 points.

Anthony told reporters in Oakland, Calif., after the game that his knee affected his play.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be 100 percent, to be honest with you, but I will play,” he said.

Anthony has been dealing with stiffness in the back of his right knee for several weeks due to a buildup of fluid. An MRI taken in February revealed no structural damage. The Knicks’ medical staff had hoped that rest would help the fluid dissipate.

Anthony, the NBA’s second-leading scorer, sat out for six days after aggravating the injury on March 4 against Cleveland but still feels discomfort. He told reporters on Monday that he hasn’t received a definitive diagnosis.

“Nobody can really give me an exact answer on it,” said Anthony, who returns to Denver on Wednesday for the first time since the Nuggets traded him to the Knicks in 2012. “There’s no pain, no ligament damage or anything like that. There’s just some fluid in the back of the knee that’s preventing me from hyperextending my knee sometimes.”

Anthony’s isn’t the only health issue that the Knicks (38-23) are trying to get a handle on. The team announced that power forward Amar’e Stoudemire underwent right knee surgery to remove debris on Monday and is is expected to miss approximately six weeks.

Stoudemire’s absence makes Anthony’s health all the more important for the Knicks. New York is tied with Indiana for second place in the Eastern Conference. The Knicks have four games remaining on their current, season-high five-game road trip.

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Anthony first aggravated the knee in the first half of Monday’s win against the Cleveland Cavaliers and hasn’t been on the floor since.

Woodson said Anthony’s status remains day to day.

The coach said Anthony reported earlier Saturday that his knee is “so-so” after receiving treatment during the team’s morning shootaround.

Anthony’s isn’t the only health issue the Knicks have. The team announced on Saturday that forward Amar’e Stoudemire is scheduled to have a right knee debridement next week and will miss approximately six weeks.

As for Anthony, an MRI taken recently revealed no structural damage, he said. But there has been a fluid buildup in the back of it.

Woodson intimated that the team has no plans to drain the fluid in Anthony’s knee at this point. The Knicks will continue with treatment and will give him time to rest. The team hasn’t taken any further tests on the knee.

“I know he’s getting his treatment and you don’t always have to drain, you can treat and the swelling can go away that way as well,” Woodson said. “We’ve just got to give it time and see what happens.”

When Anthony does return, Woodson hopes to reduce his minutes.

Anthony has played an average of 37.8 minutes per game. He averaged 41 minutes per game in January and 38.8 in February. Woodson would like to play him closer to 35 minutes, his per-game average in November.

After Saturday night, the Knicks will embark on a season-long five-game, seven-day road trip against Western Conference teams.

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