Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks pick up an impressive early win on the road against the Washington Wizards.
New York Knicks 117 (2-1)
Washington Wizards 110 (2-1)
Full Game Box Score
Verizon Center, Washington, DC
By Chip Murphy
The New York Knicks picked up a huge early season win tonight on the road against another playoff team, the Washington Wizards, 117-110.
This, despite the fact that President of Basketball Operations Phil Jackson wasn’t watching.
My brother had great seats for the Grateful Dead tonight. Then these two BIG fans blocked his view. pic.twitter.com/xR8xiNNuGc
— Steve Politi (@StevePoliti) November 1, 2015
That’s a big road win! @carmeloanthony scored 37 in the victory. #NYKvsWAS pic.twitter.com/cs6EEWlpC8 — NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) November 1, 2015
You might remember back in May when Jared Dudley called Carmelo Anthony the most overrated player in the league, per USAToday.com. Well apparently Melo remembered it too.
I wrote in my preview for tonight’s game that the best chance the Knicks had against a team like the Wizards was for Carmelo Anthony to go off. He had his best game of the short season, scoring 37 points on 11-18 shooting.
Anthony struggled shooting the ball in the first two games (combined 14 for 43) raising questions that he may not be close to 100 percent. Tonight he was able to silence the noise with a superstar’s performance. He hit multiple big shots down the stretch including icing the game with four huge free throws.
REPLAY: @carmeloanthony‘s big bucket to give the #Knicks the lead. 111-110 NYK advantage w/ 21.5 secs to go. https://t.co/3J2gKCSGRe
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) November 1, 2015
The next highest scoring Knick was Langston Galloway who had another great all around game with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. After speculation, that he may have hit his ceiling following last year’s surprising rookie campaign, Galloway has given media and fans alike plenty of reason to suspect that is not the case. In fact, ESPNNewYork.com’s Ian Begley went out of his way to praise Galloway tonight.
Just my two cents: Langston Galloway has been the Knicks’ best guard so far this season. — Ian Begley (@IanBegley) November 1, 2015
That’s not to take anything away from the Wizards. John Wall played a great game, 25 points and four assists, as usual. So great that Jose Calderon was forced out of the game in the fourth quarter due to defense. Bradley Beal was completely non-existent in the first half while Wall carried his team.
The five at crunch time for New York in this closely contested contest were Langston Galloway, Sasha Vujacic, Carmelo Anthony, Lance Thomas, and Robin Lopez. Galloway and Thomas both earned those minutes. You have to give a lot of credit to Derek Fisher for the job he did tonight. Although the Knicks may not have stopped the dominant backcourt of Washington tonight, they contained them enough to pick up the victory.
It was a win that any team should be proud of. New York will get another test on Monday when they host the vaunted San Antonio Spurs.
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