Anthony's monster night propels Knicks to 11-wins in row

KNICKS 101, Bucks 83

Maybe it was the words of Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, who said to the Knicks faithful at a halftime ceremony honoring the last Knicks team to win the NBA title in 1973, that it is time to believe and hope that this year's team can capture the title after a nearly 40 year drought.

Whatever it was, the Knicks erased a nine-point first half deficit thanks to an offensive explosion by Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith as the Knicks posted 42 third quarter points en route to a dominating 101-83 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

For an entire first half, it looked like New York was going to make this a rather difficult night against an another inferior team in the Bucks, but something snapped inside this team and in Anthony who put up 18 of his game high 41 points in the third quarter.

the turnaround started with a simple jump shot by Anthony to cut the Bucks lead to 45-38, but soon snowballed into a Knick freight train. Soon Anthony connected on a three-pointer and Raymond Felton hit a jumper to cut the Bucks lead to 47-45.

After Brandon Jennings scored the next 10 points for Milwaukee to keep the Bucks afloat, the Knicks momentum proved to be too much as New York went on an amazing 25-2 run. Anthony, J.R. Smith and Felton were trading 20 foot jumpers like it was going out of style. At one point the trio connected on four consecutive three-pointers as the Knicks took a comanding 70-59 lead.

With the Garden crowd already in a tizzy, Smith hit another long distance three from the corner to give New York a 73-59 lead. Finally, Jason Kidd put the exclamation point on the evening when he connected on a desperation 59-foot three-point heave from behind mid-court that dropped in like a small crumbled up piece of paper into a wastebasket, giving the Knicks an astounding 78-66 lead.

The Knicks would never look back. Anthony had 41, Smith had 27 points. The Knicks now own the NBA's longest current winning streak at 11.

NOTES: Kudos the Knicks crowd for giving former Knicks' great, and of course, NBA coaching legend, Phil Jackson a loud standing ovation when he was introduced to the crowd during the 1973 New York Knicks honorary ceremony at halftime.

There had been speculation that since Jackson is best known by younger fans for tormenting the Knicks as a coach of the Bulls and Lakers, and for never coaching the Knickenbokers, he would be booed. But thankfully, he got the loudest cheer.

Jackson has always been rumored to be in line to either coach or work for the Knicks for years, but it never happened. Jackson doesn't seem interested in coaching again ... at least right now.  

Jackson, who has won 11 NBA titles as a head coach for the Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers, reunited with his old Knicks mates for the first time in years. In fact this was the first time in 40 years were almost all of the members of the '72-'73 team were together.