The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 100-83 to snap the Spurs' seven-game winning streak.
For the Knicks, Carmelo Anthony was the top scorer with 23 points and eight rebounds, while J.R. Smith added 20 points and Steve Novak scored 15 points from five of seven attempts from the field.
Tyson Chandler and Amar'e Stoudemire added 10 points apiece against the Spurs, with the former also chipping in with 14 rebounds.
"They shot the hell out of it and I could see it wasn't going to happen," the Associated Press quoted Spurs coach Gregg Popovich as saying. "Just too low on fuel and their defense was too good.
"Bad combination, and then they made shots, which makes it even worse."
Gary Neal was the leading scorer for the Spurs with 12 points, while Tim Duncan and Tony Parker had 11 points each. Stephen Jackson could not play as his usual self because of an ankle injury and was in the field for only a little over three minutes.
New York outscored the Spurs 22-19 in the first quarter, whereas San Antonio outscored the Knicks 21-20. The Knicks were leading by two points at the end of the first half.
In the third quarter, San Antonio scored 20 points, whereas the Knicks had 25 points.
New York then completely outshined the Spurs 33-23 in the last quarter and won the game by 17 points.
It was the Spurs' fourth game in the last five nights. The tired San Antonio players shot poorly, making just 28 out of 77 attempts from the field, whereas New York had 39-of-82. The Spurs shot nine shots from beyond the 3-point arc, whereas the Knicks had 12 three-pointers.
"It wasn't the first time, it's not going to be the last one," Spurs reserve Manu Ginobili said of the tired performance. "But of course we've got to give them credit because they forced us to not find anything easy, they made us really work."
New York out-rebounded the Spurs 48-35. The Knicks defense successfully limited the Spurs to a low score and rallied in the last quarter to win the game.
Coach Mike Woodson showed confidence in Marcus Camby to start the game, but that did not bring good results as New York could score only 19 points in the first quarter. Camby played for 15.35 minutes and had only two points and six rebounds in the game.
"Our defense was slacking the last 10 games or so. Our defense kind of went the other way," Woodson said. "We put a nice feel-good tape together to show our players how we started the season, that we were No. 1 in defense and on offense. There was some major slippage."
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