Forward Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks (4-6) with 26 points, but he only scored four points in the second half.
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Another year and LeBron James still not only the most talked about player in the National Basketball Association, but one of the best.
Mo Williams, starting in place of Cleveland’s injured Kyrie Irving, was held to four points despite coming into the game averaging 16.9.
James scored 37 points for Cleveland, which lost for the first time since dropping the season opener to Chicago, 97-95, on October 27. Additionally, the preseason is not a good measuring stick of where these two teams are now at. “Prayers sent to all the families!” Cleveland trailed by six points with 5:24 to go, before the duo took over. Combining that with the two point loss to the Bulls on opening night, and the Cavs don’t really have something to think over and say is actually dysfunctioning.
Dion Waiters scored 14 points and Enes Kanter had 13 for the Thunder, who won their third straight. Westbrook finished with 21 points, a career-high 17 rebounds and 11 assists for the 21st triple-double of his career.
After a hot first half, Anthony fell into a cold spell when the intensity picked up, missing his first nine shots.
It wasn’t the prettiest of games – neither team shot better than 43% from the field – but it was entertaining and competitive, and that’s what fans wanted to see. Anthony, an eight-time All-Star but never first-team All-NBA, has reached the conference finals just once (with Denver in 2009), has never played in the NBA Finals and has reached the second round just once in three playoff appearances with the Knicks. The basket gave the Knicks a double-digit lead for the third straight game. LeBron James leads in three statistical categories: points (25.3), assists (6.6) and steals (2.1). He appeared to be fouled on the play but no call was made and with LeBron on the ground the Knicks pushed the ball, resulting in an open three for Jose Calderon.
Nicolas Batum led all scorers with 28 points but his 3-point attempt to tie the game at 100 was off target. But with Derek Fisher getting quality minutes from Langston Galloway and Lou Amundson, the Knicks extended their lead to 72-66 entering the fourth. Williams and Dellavedova combined to go scoreless in regulation with seven turnovers and 10 assists.
He’d add four more in the second extra session, but Milwaukee got 3-pointers from forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and guard Greivis Vasquez, and went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line to close it out.
The Cleveland Cavaliers rank 15th in offensive rebounding, while the NY Knicks rank 16th in defensive rebounding.
Interestingly, that set the stage for Bayless of all people to take on the task of defending James (!?) in the final three minutes, and shockingly it helped the Bucks pull away.
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Anthony tried to prevent the lay-up but James scored as he was fouled. Then, after a Knicks miss on the other end, he worked against Anthony and hit a tough, contested fade-away to put the Cavaliers ahead 84-82.
