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.

Just like the Chicago Blackhawks.

Chicago extended its NHL-record season-opening points streak to 22 games Sunday when Kane scored the tying goal on a power play with 2:02 left in regulation and the Blackhawks earned an extra point when the star forward scored the only goal in a shootout of a 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings.

“Just amazing what’s going on,” Kane said.

Corey Crawford was perfect in the shootout and finished with 32 saves to help Chicago win a ninth straight game.

“He had several big saves, particularly right after they scored to go up one,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “He kept us in there to make it a one-goal game and gave us a chance.”

The Blackhawks have earned at least a point in 28 straight games — dating to a March 25, 2012 loss in regulation to Nashville — to tie the second-longest streak in league history. They’ve matched Montreal’s multi-season points run from the 1977-78 season and trail only Philadelphia’s streak of 35 straight games with at least a point during the 1979-80 season.

“It’s impressive,” Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard acknowledged after making 32 saves. “They’re finding different ways to do it every single night.”

It looked like Chicago’s sensational streak of success might end when Detroit’s Tomas Tatar broke a scoreless tie early in the third period and Howard stopped every puck that came his way.

Kane and Crawford had other ideas.

“We keep finding a way to keep ourselves in the game or win it at the end,” Kane said.

The Red Wings hurt their chances by getting called for delay of game twice toward the end of regulation for putting the puck out of play.

Chicago took advantage of the first of two late power plays with forward Viktor Stalberg getting more of the puck than Detroit defenseman Kyle Quincey did, pushing it to Kane to set up a one-timer that made it 1-1.

Kane scored from the bottom of the right circle and pivoted toward the crowd, shouting with joy as he pumped his gloves toward the banner-filled rafters.

“He knew the importance of it to get us to overtime,” Quenneville said.

With a sold-out crowd on its feet for a shootout at the end of an entertaining afternoon of hockey, Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk was denied on a low attempt by Crawford’s pads on the first attempt. Jonathan Toews then went high and couldn’t get a shot past Howard’s glove.

Red Wings rookie Damien Brunner made some nifty moves next, but couldn’t keep the puck and for that, Crawford looked thankful as the two met face to face on the ice.

Kane then stole the show, slowly skating toward Howard and lifting his right skate off the ice twice before flipping a wrist shot past him to make the fans at Joe Louis Arena sigh.

“He’s got great skill,” Howard said.

On Detroit’s third attempt in the heart-pounding shootout, Henrik Zetterberg couldn’t extend the game.

“I don’t think we were close to perfect and we almost beat them anyway,” Zetterberg said.

The Red Wings had chances to win in regulation, and in overtime, but Crawford was effective in his return to the net.

Crawford slid to his left to get a piece of Johan Franzen’s shot with 1:40 left in overtime, and the two talked about the play during the subsequent break.

Both teams were inches away from scoring in the final seconds of overtime, with Detroit’s Brendan Smith just missing an opportunity to the left of the net and Kane’s shot squirting past Howard before it trickled just to right of the other net.

The Blackhawks dominated the first period, but Howard — and his teammates — prevented them from scoring on two power plays. The second period was evenly played, then Detroit finally got a shot past Crawford at 2:43 of the third.

Patrick Eaves got to a loose puck behind Chicago’s net, pushed it to Joakim Andersson, whose sharp pass set up Tatar perfectly on the side of the net to beat Crawford.

A bit later, Crawford made a spectacular glove save to deny Datsyuk’s chance that could’ve given the Red Wings a two-goal lead — and perhaps the win in regulation.

Quenneville gave Crawford the start in Detroit after he left his last game Thursday night in St. Louis with an upper-body injury that Quenneville insisted isn’t the same one that forced the goaltender off the ice earlier in the season.

Crawford didn’t get much work early, making just three saves in the first period. He stopped 12 shots in the second — as did Howard — in a fast-pace game filled with end-to-end action and few whistles.

“It was a fun game,” Zetterberg said. “Fans were really into it from the start. These are the games you’re looking forward to play. Unfortunately we couldn’t come up with the win.”

Game notes

The previous record for season-opening points streak was 16 set by the Anaheim Ducks during the 2006-07 season. … Chicago plans to have F Dave Bolland (upper-body injury) back in the lineup Tuesday at home against Minnesota. … Detroit hopes F Valtteri Filppula, out with shoulder injury, can return by next weekend. … Blackhawks F Marian Hossa, a former Red Wing, played in his 1,000th NHL game, a milestone that was recognized by the public address announcer amid a chorus of boos.

The post Advertisement Blackhawks extend season-opening point streak with shootout win appeared first on IdealCapper.

If Griffin, who is suffering from a hamstring strain, does sit out, he will join guards Chris Paul and Chauncey Billups on Los Angeles’ bench.

Griffin ended a streak of 197 games played when he sat out Monday’s loss to the Washington Wizards with the left hamstring injury and did not go through shootaround Wednesday morning. He will be re-evaluated Thursday before the Clippers play the Miami Heat on Friday.

This will be the ninth straight game and 12th overall Paul has missed this season with a bruised right kneecap.

The five-time All-Star injured his knee with 54 seconds left in the Clippers’ 104-101 loss to the Magic on Jan. 12 when he collided with Orlando guard J.J. Redick.

Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe has started the 11 games Paul has missed, with the team going 5-6 during that time.

Billups has been out with peroneal tendinitis in his left foot and has played only three games this season. Although Billups didn’t go through shootaround on Wednesday, he believes Thursday’s practice will let him know whether he can come back before the end of the Clippers’ road trip.

“I’m looking forward to practicing tomorrow and going up and down,” Billups said Wednesday. “Tomorrow I’ll be able to compete and see how I feel.”

The post Hamstring ails Blake Griffin appeared first on IdealCapper.