Knicks stop the rot with timely win over Spurs

Anthony insists he focusing on his game despite club turmoil

The New York Knicks’ latest tough week ended on a high note on Sunday as Carmelo Anthony and company shocked the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 at Madison Square Garden.

A victory over the second-best team in the NBA was a welcome change of fortune for the Knicks, who are languishing well out of play-off contention in the Eastern Conference amid tensions between Anthony and club president Phil Jackson.

A feud between owner James Dolan and popular ex-Knick Charles Oakley also boiled over in ugly fashion.

Anthony said he was doing his best to ignore the noise.

“I’m out here playing basketball, trying to enjoy the game of basketball,” he said. “Whatever happens outside the basketball court does not concern me.”

Instead, Anthony said, he and his teammates were focused on delivering the kind of consistent performance they’ve had trouble sustaining through four quarters this season. Anthony scored 25 points and pulled down seven rebounds, Derrick Rose added 18 and Kristaps Porzingis contributed 16 with seven rebounds and four blocked shots to help the Knicks end a four-game skid.

New York came up big defensively, too, holding the Spurs to a SanAntonio Toronto New Orleans 89 90 101 99 season-low 36.3 per cent shooting in the upset.

Kawhi Leonard paced the Spurs with 36 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 15, but veteran point guard Tony Parker missed all three of his field goal attempts and finished with zero points and four assists in 31 minutes on the floor.

A jump shot from Leonard cut New York’s lead to 88-86 with 1:43 to play, but Anthony responded with two straight baskets that rebuilt the Knicks’s lead to 92-86 with 33 seconds remaining and the Spurs wouldn’t get the deficit below four points the rest of the way.

In Toronto, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored five of his 21 points in the final minute as the Detroit Pistons erased a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Raptors 102-101.Caldwell-Pope made a 16-foot jumper and followed it with a three-pointer with 13.2 seconds left to give the Pistons a one-point lead.

In Sacramento, DeMarcus Cousins scored 28 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and handed out 17 assists in the Kings’s 10599 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.