Knicks 115
Warriors 99
Michael Sweetney was trying to leave the locker room early last night when he bumped into a gang of reporters entering at the doorway, stopping him in his tracks.
“You can’t leave without talking to them,” Allan Houston told the Knicks’ second-year big man. “You had a big game.”
Sweetney had the best quarter of his life last night in the first 12 minutes of the opening game of a four-game Knicks homestand. He made his first nine shots, scored 18 points and set the tone for a bounce-back 115-99 victory against the woeful Warriors.
Who says the Knicks don’t have a post offense? Sweetney, Maurice Taylor and Tim Thomas all were beasts in the post and the Knicks’ offense was a machine in the club’s fourth win in five games.
“I didn’t know how many, but I knew I didn’t miss any,” Sweetney, who has been in the starting lineup since the two trade-deadline deals, said of his first-quarter shooting.
Bouncing back from Friday’s dreadful showing in Orlando, the Knicks hit 12 of their first 14 shots, with Stephon Marbury spreading the ball around, and built a 13-point first-quarter lead. Marbury had six assists in the first four minutes, and finished with 26 points and 16 assists and four steals.
Despite their big start, the Knicks still had to hold off the Warriors in the fourth quarter. After Andris Biedrins’ basket put the Warriors up 93-92 with 7:24 remaining, the Knicks used a 21-1 run and to close them out, holding Golden State without a field goal for more than six minutes.
“We just wrapped up,” Marbury said.
Tim Thomas finished with 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting as the Knicks shot 61.8 percent. Thomas was also solid in the post. In the first quarter, he posted Jason Richardson and scored over him on a turn-around without the Warrior bothering to raise his arms.
Sweetney went quiet in the second half, but his backup, Maurice Taylor, emerged to have his best game as a Knick. He finished with 15 points off the bench on a near-perfect 7-of-8 shooting.
“I’m starting to learn the plays,” Taylor said. “What spots to be in, getting used to the way the team plays. I had it going tonight.”
Taylor made a big play during their fourth-quarter surge, grabbing the offensive rebound of a free-throw miss by Tim Thomas and laying it in and getting fouled. It boosted the Knicks’ lead to 10 points with 6:23 left.
Knicks coach Herb Williams said the club would try to get more post points against Golden State, which has a weak interior, led by Adonal Foyle, who signed for $40 million last summer in Chris Mullin’s first strange move as Warriors GM.
Sweeney’s best bucket came in Patrick Ewing fashion – a deep fadeaway 15-foot jumper remi niscent of the Big Fella.
“I’m feeling good, feeling confidence; [they’re] calling plays for me, guys [are] looking for me,” Sweet ney said. “I got into a good rhythm, running the floor for layups.”
Sweetney was remarkable inside and Marbury kept finding him. Marbury had 11 assists at halftime.
“When he has his legs under him, that really gets him going,” Marbury said.
The Knicks were feeling it in the first quarter as Marbury broke down the defense and fed to Thomas rolling to the bucket. Thomas went in for a mon ster right-handed slam over Foyle. When he landed, Thomas taunted Foyle, flexing his body.
