New York Knicks got the better of Phoenix Suns 106-99 Sunday to stay unbeaten at home. They have won seven straight games at Madison Square Garden, which is their best home start in the last 20 years.
Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points, whereas Tyson Chandler had a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks.
Under coach Mike Woodson, the Knicks are trying hard to protect their home court, by using attack as their best form of defense.
"His whole thing when he came in is we're going to protect our home floor. We're going to win every game at home, or we're going to try to win every game at home, and we're going to go out on the road and compete," the Associated Press quoted center Tyson Chandler as saying.
"So his whole thing is we've got to protect our house. Teams coming in got to feel like they've got to go somewhere else to get a win."
Raymond Felton scored 23 points, seven assists and chipped in three rebounds. He had no turnovers for the Knicks, whereas Anthony had four. Felton had a hand injury, but it did not affect his game.
"I got jammed in between another player," he said. "Just a lot of pain in my thumb."
Chandler played for a little over 31 minutes, making six out of eight attempts for the Knicks, who are passing through a dream run and are just a half game behind Miami for the best record in the Eastern Conference. Even Rasheed Wallace's ejection could not affect their performance against the Suns.
"I think they're a hell of basketball team. I really do," Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry said. "When you add Iman Shumpert and Amar'e Stoudemire back to the mix, shoot, they're as good as anybody."
For the Suns, top scorer Marcin Gortat scored 18 points and chipped in with 10 rebounds, while Shannon Brown added 17 points and seven rebounds.
The Knicks outscored the Suns in the first quarter 24-20. In the second quarter, New York completely outclassed the Suns, scoring 35 points to the away team's 22.
The Suns were trailing by 17 points at the end of the first half, but they fought back after that. In the fourth quarter, Phoenix tried their best to get back into the game. With a layup, Brown reduced the gap 103-99 with 26 seconds left, but J.R. Smith shot two free throws and Chandler added another as the Knicks clinched victory.
"We've just got to stop digging ourselves in a hole," Suns forward Michael Beasley said. "When you get down 15, 20 points, you kind of need a perfect storm to come back and I feel like we're relying on that perfect storm in too many of our games."
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