ATLANTA – Jamal Crawford was colder than an Alaskan glacier. That didn’t stop Stephon Marbury from putting the game in Crawford’s frigid hands with 3.4 seconds left in overtime last night against the Hawks.
Trailing by one point, 108-107, Marbury penetrated into the lane, drew a double team, kicked it back out to the right wing for an open Crawford, a few steps behind the 3-point line. Despite his 6 of 26 shooting ledger, Crawford rose with authority and drilled home his second game-winning 3-pointer in two weeks, allowing the Knicks to escape with a wacky 110-109 victory at Philips Arena.
“I play basketball to win,” said Marbury, who seemed to have an open alley to the basket. “I’m not thinking about if a guy hasn’t made a shot. If I have confidence in a guy, I’ll throw him the ball to make a shot. He’s a very confident player. He stayed aggressive the whole game.”
The Knicks have won just twice on the road, both coming on last-second Crawford treys. All that was missing was the glass. Crawford gave the Knicks their much-needed win in Houston with a buzzer-beating banked 3-pointer nearly two weeks ago.
“I could miss 50 but I’ve got to still stay confident,” said Crawford, who finished with 24 points on 7 of 28 shooting, 2 of 12 on 3-pointers. “For [Stephon] to come to me in that situation after I missed all those shots says a lot about him too. He really trusted me.”
After Crawford’s big bucket put the Knicks up two, Antoine Walker, a pending free agent whose expressed interest in New York, got fouled on a drive to the basket with two seconds left. But Walker (36 points) missed the first free-throw, ending the Hawks’ bid.
Crawford’s awful shooting forced the Knicks to go to OT against the horrendous 2-12 Hawks. But all is good now, with the Knicks moving above .500 at 7-6 for the first time since December 2001.
“If it’s baseball, you hit a home run in the ninth inning, I’ll take it,” said Tim Thomas, who left in the third quarter with a bruised quad and may miss tonight’s game vs. Memphis.
With Allan Houston still sidelined, the streaky Crawford is indisputably their go-to guy in the clutch. But last night, Marbury, back in his college town where he starred at Georgia Tech, had an extra spring to his first step in getting to the basket.
Marbury had been the offensive star with 32 points – including two free throws in the final seconds that forced overtime. So he took it hard to the hole before flinging the ball back. It was reminiscent of the loss in Dallas 12 days ago when Marbury passed up an open 3-pointer to dish to struggling Tim Thomas, who missed. Marbury is simply playing with a different mindset of putting his mates in position for glory.
“I want the ball in those situations and Steph and the guys keeps putting me in those situations,” said Crawford, who shot 3 of 6 in OT for seven points but missed an open jumper with 35 seconds left and the club down two nearly sealed the loss.
Said Marbury, “If I draw two people, I did my job.”
This should never have gotten this far, as the Knicks controlled the game for the first three quarters. Atlanta rallied in the fourth, taking a six-point lead and also were up 108-105 with 1:18 left in OT when Boris Diaw scored seven straight on Crawford.
