Rudy Gay scores 32, Raptors beat Knicks 100-98
New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony, left, drives on Toronto Raptors’ Rudy Gay during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Toronto on Friday, Feb. 22 , 2013. AP
TORONTO— Rudy Gay scored a season-high 32 points, DeMar DeRozan had 18 and the Toronto Raptors beat New York 100-98 on Friday night, handing the slumping Knicks their season-worst fourth straight loss.
Kyle Lowry scored 15 points, Amir Johnson 12 and John Lucas 10 as the Raptors won for the sixth time in seven games.
Carmelo Anthony had 32 points and J.R. Smith added 19 for the Knicks, winless since beating Minnesota on Feb. 8.
Amare Stoudemire scored 14 points and Raymond Felton added 10 for New York, which rallied from a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter to take the lead with 6:11 left.
Trailing 79-70 to begin the fourth, New York scored nine of the next 11 points. Toronto called a timeout after Stoudemire’s dunk cut it to 81-79 with 9:09 left.
New York kept coming, tying it at 86 on Smith’s 3-pointer with 6:55 left and then taking the lead 45 seconds later when Smith scored on a driving layup.
Gay made two free throws and added a jumper to put Toronto up 93-89 with 3:35 left, but New York tied it again when Anthony hit a pair from the line and Smith followed with a step-back jumper.
Gay and Anthony traded jumpers, keeping it tied, before Lowry hit a driving hook shot to put Toronto up 97-95 with 28 seconds remaining.
Lowry fouled Tyson Chandler, who missed his first free throw but made the second, cutting it to 97-96 with 21 seconds left.
Chandler fouled out, sending Gay to the line at the other end, where he drained both to put Toronto up 99-96.
Gay was fouled again after grabbing the rebound on Anthony’s missed 3 on the next possession. His first shot rolled out but the second went down, giving the Raptors a 100-96 lead with 6 seconds left.
Anthony made a layup with 3 seconds left, but the Raptors ran out the clock to earn their second win over the Knicks this season. Toronto improved to 3-8 against Atlantic Division opponents.
Anthony had 13 points but Lowry made four 3-pointers and DeRozan converted a three-point play with a second left to tie the score at 32 after one quarter.
Stoudemire scored six points in the second quarter and Chandler had five rebounds to help the Knicks take a 51-48 lead into halftime.
Held in check in the first half, Gay broke loose for 17 points in the third, connecting on seven of nine field goal attempts. One of his two misses was an off-balance jumper in the final second of the quarter. DeRozan added eight points as the Raptors took a 79-70 lead into the fourth.
NOTES: Toronto’s Jonas Valanciunas had a game-high 10 rebounds. … Raptors rookie and newly crowned slam dunk champion Terrence Ross did not dress because of flulike symptoms. … Ex-Knick Landry Fields started for the Raptors in place of Johnson. … Toronto F Linas Kleiza denied a report from Lithuania that he is set to retire because of lingering right knee pain. Sidelined since Dec. 28, Kleiza said he hopes to return within a week. … The game was briefly halted when a fan ran onto the court in the fourth quarter.
