Amar'e Stoudemire had expressed his disappointment with Friday’s game, saying the Knicks didn’t seem to take the game seriously.
On Sunday, however, Stoudemire was all business, showing his leadership by matching his season high in scoring with 41 points.
“We went to Philly and those guys played extremely well. They had a lot of energy and it kind of caught us off guard a little bit,” Stoudemire told MSG after Sunday’s game.
“But I think tonight we came out with great focus from the start and carried it out for the full 48 minutes. My teammates did a great job of playing well also, and it opened the quarter up for me a little bit. Landry had a phenomenal game and we did a great job connecting.”
“This shows what type of team we want to become. We have a lot of work to do, but we want to be a great team,” Stoudemire said.
Backing up Stoudemire in the scoring department was Landry Fields, who broke his previous season high of 21 points for a new career high 25 points. Fields was 5–7 in 3-pointers.
The Knicks held a small lead right from the start of Sunday’s game that lasted for the entire first quarter except for a brief tie by the 76ers near the end of the quarter.
Stoudemire had the hot hand early on, hitting his first four field goals and finishing the quarter with 10 points. He was able to hit the outside jumper and still remain a threat from inside the paint, but made some sloppy passes that resulted in turnovers.
Fields had the hot hand at the end of the first quarter to lead a 9–2 Knicks run that pulled the team up 31–24.
Danilo Gallinari broke his impressive free-throw streak at 37 in the middle of the first quarter; the streak was the fourth longest in Knicks franchise history.
Fields kept up the scoring to start the second quarter, giving the Knicks what was then their largest lead of the game at nine points.
Stoudemire came alive at the end of the quarter to fend off a 76ers run and the first half finished with the Knicks up 55–51. Stoudemire led in scoring with 19 points and Fields had 9 points.
Elton Brand led the 76ers with 12 points in the first half. Both teams played clean, aggressive defense in what was a fast-paced half.
Second Half
The Knicks started the third quarter with a 6–0 run but then Stoudemire got a technical foul—his 14th of the year and just two away from an automatic one-game suspension.
He and Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni were clearly perplexed by the call; it came from referee Bob Delaney for an apparent inappropriate reaction to a foul against Stoudemire who was trying to steal the ball. But Stoudemire looked relatively calm on the replay and the Knicks will look to get the technical rescinded.
“I don’t know how you play the game without emotion,” D’Antoni said in the post-game conference. “I do not get it. It’s an emotional game and I would rather players play with emotion.”
The technical did not phase Stoudemire or the Knicks as they extended their lead to as much as 15 points in the third quarter. The 76ers would make a run to cut the lead back to three points at the end of the quarter before the score ended 86–80.
Wilson Chandler and Toney Douglas hit back-to-back 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter on a high note and quickly pulled the Knicks lead back up to 12 points.
The Knicks battled a small surge by the 76ers—though nothing close to the 76ers 15–0 fourth-quarter comeback in Friday’s game. But the Knicks never lost a solid lead, taking firm control of the game in the closing minutes.
Raymond Felton finished the night with a double-double, 13 points and 13 assists. Chandler and Douglas contributed 12 points and 10 points from the bench, respectively.
The 76ers were carried by Brand with 28 points. Louis Williams and Thaddeus Young had impressive contributions from the bench with 19 points and 16 points, respectively.
The 76ers are now two games behind New York for sixth place in the Eastern conference.
