It seems that last-place New York Knicks is finding its rhythm and now eager to build a successful road trip, while the Detroit Pistons are running out of moves.
The Knicks would attempt to give the Pistons its season-worst fifth consecutive loss this Tuesday night. New York seeks back-to-back wins for the first time in four weeks.
Although it lost to the Houston Rockets in its trip to Texas with 102-100 last Friday, the Knicks returns home with a 2-1 record. New York pulled a 105-101 victory against San Antonio Spurs the previous night and it won again at Dallas in Sunday's finale with 92-80.
"I thought this trip was very productive," Carmelo Anthony told ESPN. "We had a chance to go undefeated, but we'll take 2-1. Anytime you can win on the road like that, it's big time. These last couple games we have made some big strides and we just want to keep it up.
Anthony is among the NBA leaders with 26.0 points per game. He led five Knicks three of whom are reserves and scored 19 points. His teammate Kenyon Martin also delivered with a season-high 14 on 7-of-8 shooting after starting Tyson Chandler, Knicks' center, left with an illness.
"It's funny the way things happen. Right now you can just see the way that guys are responding, playing. It seems like guys are having fun again, so we just want to build on that and see what happens," Anthony added.
"I didn't even know if Kenyon was going to play," coach Mike Woodson said of Martin, who missed Friday's game due to an ankle injury. "We needed all of Kenyon tonight to carry this win."
Amar'e Stoudemire and Tim Hardaway Jr., both reserves, had a combined 21 points.
"Our bench was fantastic, and we are going to need our bench to play like they played tonight," Woodson said.
However, the Pistons (14-20) have dropped four straight in a row with an average of 19.0 points and six of seven overall.
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