New Orleans Hornets guard Eric Gordon, front left, slips as New York Knicks guard Jason Kidd (5) steals the ball in the first half of an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013. The Knicks defeated the Hornets 100-87. AP /Kathy Willens
NEW YORK – Carmelo Anthony scored 27 points and rookie Chris Copeland added 22 Sunday as the New York Knicks beat New Orleans 100-87 to snap a three-game National Basketball Association losing streak.
Amare Stoudemire added 12 points for the Knicks, who had five points and 14 rebounds from Tyson Chandler on the way to ending the Hornets’ four-game winning streak.
“They got into a flow. Carmelo got into a big flow in the second quarter and when he is flowing, their whole team is flowing,” said Eric Gordon, who led the Hornets with 22 points.
“They had a big quarter and they kept having big strides after that. We didn’t play as well.”
The Knicks got off to a slow start, and trailed 29-22 after the first quarter. Then Anthony came alive, out-scoring the entire Hornets team 18-12 in the period.
A free throw by Anthony knotted the score at 36 with 4:19 to play in the first half, and the Knicks never trailed after that.
“We were slow again out of the box defensively, I thought,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said.
“We’ve just got to start the game better. That’s what I’m concerned about right now.”
Anthony said the Knicks were determined to tighten up on defense after surrendering 29 points to the Hornets in the opening quarter.
“We came back to the huddle, at the end of the quarter, looked up and knew 29 points was definitely too many points,” Anthony said. “We held them to 12, 13 points and the game turned around from there.”