With 26 points and 16 assists, Stephon Marbury had answers for the Warriors’ Baron Davis all night. That is, until Marbury was asked how he thought Davis would do with his new team.
“I don’t know,” said Marbury.
It was the only time Marbury was stumped. He dominated Davis and Derek Fisher in the Knicks’ 115-99 closer-than-the-final-score-indicates victory over the Warriors. While Marbury put up big numbers, Davis had just 13 points and five assists, while Fisher went for eight points and three assists.
Against Marbury, the Warriors tried everything, putting two men on him at times. But utilizing pick and rolls and penetration, Marbry was unstoppable.
“We committed two people to him and that just didn’t seem to work,” Warriors coach Mike Montgomery said. “He was splitting our doubles. We did have two people on a hedge situation [off pick and rolls,] but he was very good tonight. He really probed and he split it some and he passed it out some.”
Marbury’s first step was too much for Davis and Fisher. Looking fresh, he consistently beat them off the dribble, which created easy shots for the Knick forwards.
Before last night, the Knicks were off four of the previous five nights – not to mention during the blowout loss to Orlando in which Marbury played 38 minutes, but sat out a significant portion of the fourth.
“The rest has helped me,” Marbury said. “I’m feeling a lot better.”
In the fourth last night, Marbury took an inadvertent elbow to the head from Kurt Thomas. Well, it looked inadvertent, but, of course, Thomas threatened to take on Marbury during a spat two months ago over Marbury’s bullying ways. Last night, as Marbury fell back, Thomas continued up court. Marbury was fine and stayed in the game, continuing to punish the Warriors.
Knicks coach Herb Williams declined to say Marbury’s outing was his best of the year, but he had only praise for his point guard.
“I wouldn’t say it was his best game,” Williams said. “I thought he played well on both ends of the court. I thought he did a good job on Baron Davis and Fisher. He got guys involved. He saw mismatches. He called plays to get the ball into the post, where we thought we had an advantage.”
