Felton, unbeaten Knicks rally past the Spurs
New York Knicks’ Raymond Felton, right, shoots over San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker, of France, during the second half of an NBA basketball game on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012, in San Antonio. New York won 104-100. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
SAN ANTONIO — Raymond Felton scored 25 points and the New York Knicks stayed undefeated by rallying to beat the San Antonio Spurs 104-100 on Thursday night.
J.R. Smith added 17 points, Jason Kidd had 14 and Tyson Chandler 13 for the Knicks (6-0), who closed on a 22-11 run to remain the NBA’s lone unbeaten team.
Tony Parker led San Antonio (7-2) with 19 points and 12 assists. Kawhi Leonard added 16 points and Tim Duncan had 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Smith and Kidd hit consecutive 3-pointers to give the Knicks a 100-95 lead with a minute left.
San Antonio missed seven of its last nine shots and had two turnovers in the final 2 minutes. The Spurs had won 18 of 19 regular-season games against New York.
The late defensive push offset an uncharacteristic start by the Knicks.
After holding their first five opponents to 87.8 points per game, the Knicks allowed the Spurs to set a quick tone when Danny Green opened with consecutive backdoor layups off assists from Parker and Duncan.
The Knicks kept pace behind Felton, who had nine points and two assists in the opening period while shooting 3 for 5 from the field. Felton’s first 3-pointer gave the Knicks a 29-24 lead with 2 minutes left in the first period.
Steve Novak and Rasheed Wallace hit back-to-back 3s to extend New York’s lead to 45-38 with 7:21 left in the first half. New York opened 6 for 7 on 3s.
DeJuan Blair smiled at Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and gave him a double fist bump before taking the court for his first start of the season. The move paid off. Blair had two points and an assist while denying Carmelo Anthony the ball defensively and hounding the Knicks All-Star into missing his only attempt in the opening 8 minutes.
Anthony appeared frustrated by the lack of touches, shaking his head and laughing when the Knicks rotated the ball away from him late in the second quarter.
Anthony got aggressive after that possession, taking four shots in the final 3 minutes of the first half. He was blocked twice by Duncan under the basket. The first block resulted in Anthony’s own follow-up basket and the second led to a 3-pointer by Green with 0.8 seconds that gave the Spurs a 57-55 lead at halftime.
