Curry ignites Knicks


By STEVE ADAMEK
STAFF WRITER



CLEVELAND -- The clock ticked below a minute to play with the score tied and the Knicks put the ball in Jamal Crawford's hands.

With seven game-winning shots since coming to New York, the strategy seemed clear: Crawford doesn't give it up and shoots to win.

Not this time.

Demonstrating the growing trust the Knicks have in their big man, Eddy Curry, Crawford fed him the ball for a throw-down and a foul. Curry's free throw gave Isiah Thomas' team the lead by three with 46.5 seconds to play and despite some twists and turns, they never relinquished it.

They beat the team that shared the East's second best record, LeBron James' Cavaliers, 101-98, to end a November they merely hoped to survive at 6-11, including 5-5 on the road (where they finish their three-game trip Friday in suburban Detroit).

Quentin Richardson, after a one-game hamstring hiatus, scored and defended James to a draw, 27-27, with LBJ making just 10 of 22 shots to Q's 10-of-15, including 5-for-7 on threes.

Crawford scored all 11 of his points in the final quarter on a bum left ankle and the aggressive Stephon Marbury showed up periodically to finish with 13, but also a mere 5-4 assist-turnover night.

Yet this game illustrated that the Knicks are giving more trust to their big man, who scored half of his 24 points in the final quarter and kept getting the ball down the stretch.

That represents a far different role from last season under Larry Brown, when he said, "I don't even see the fourth quarter, let alone the ball."

But amid all the turmoil and blown leads and gallant-but-futile comebacks, one thing has become clear about the Knicks: Curry is now their first option. As Thomas has said several times recently, they learned from watching Yao Ming undress Curry twice this month that they have to be "stubborn" about getting him the ball.

Curry's numbers in the five games since he last met Yao: 59.1 percent shooting (39-for-66) and 20.6 points per game, including four straight games in the 20s.

Plus from the foul line, where he began Wednesday shooting a tepid 52.7 percent, he made a serviceable 10-of-15, including 6-of-9 in the final quarter.

In other words, he delivered in a situation similar to one in which the Knicks came up small a night earlier in Chicago, the fourth quarter, primarily because their big man showed heretofore rarely seen signs of life.

"Not only was he able to carry [the load]," Thomas said, "but I was glad that our team was patient and recognized it and learned from what we didn't do [Tuesday] night."

"We're going to him and he's coming through," Crawford said, "and I think guys are getting more comfortable going into him."

Still, the Knicks blew an 11-point third-quarter lead and had to keep James from taking over the game. Richardson accomplished the latter, and Crawford helped the Knicks hang around in the fourth, scoring six points and assisting on another two during a two-minute stretch to tie the game at 83.

But in the final minute, with the score tied at 98, he looked for his old Bulls buddy, Curry, as he handled the ball out top and decided this night, he wouldn't be shooting from the perimeter.

"I wasn't going to settle for a jumper at that point and [the Cavs] probably thought that was coming," Crawford said. "I was either going to get a foul or get the ball to Eddy. I think [Anderson] Varejao came over and helped, and Eddy was wide open."

"We're so used to Jamal's heroics," Curry said. "We depend so much on Jamal making big shots in the end, it felt good."

Good, for a change, to be the go-to guy.

E-mail: adamek@northjersey.com

Posted by PhilinLA:

We are so much better when Curry is involved and the guards (including QRich) drive.

You hit it right on the head. When Francis and Jamal were penetrating and dishing to Eddy in the 4th the team did great.

Posted by PresIke:

Posted by PhilinLA:

We are so much better when Curry is involved and the guards (including QRich) drive.

You hit it right on the head. When Francis and Jamal were penetrating and dishing to Eddy in the 4th the team did great.

I thought that was the point of the whole offense. Dumping down to Curry and sitting on the perimeter is not good. Curry is a bad decision maker with the ball in his hands.

They were trying to do it with entry passes without setting up the threat of the pick and roll or the drive and dish. D's had no problem with that cause they'd just double Curry when the lollipop entry pass came in. This makes them a lot less predictable.