(SportsNetwork.com) – Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks will hit the
road for three straight games, starting with Wednesday’s showdown with the
Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
The Knicks will also make stops in Brooklyn and Atlanta before returning to
Madison Square Garden for four straight games.
New York was going for three straight wins and those plans were put on hold in
Tuesday’s 98-83 setback to the Washington Wizards at MSG. The Wizards posted a
32-15 scoring advantage in the third quarter and the Knicks couldn’t recover,
falling to 2-2 on the young season under first-year head coach Derek Fisher.
“The Wizards upped their pressure. They really got into our guys a little
more,” Fisher said of the third quarter. “They wanted it more than we did to
start.”
Anthony, who recently notched the 20,000th point of his career, scored 18
points on just 8-of-23 shooting and turned the ball over a season-worst seven
times. Iman Shumpert posted a team-best 19 points.
No other Knick player scored in double figures and the team shot only 37
percent from the floor. The Knicks did make 8-of-15 3-pointers.
Amare Stoudemire grabbed 12 rebounds to go along with six points.
New York won its only road game of the season on Oct. 30 against LeBron James
and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Pistons are 0-3 so far and have lost seven in a row dating back to last
season. They last started 0-4 in 2012-13, when the team opened the gates with
eight consecutive defeats.
Detroit is coming off Saturday’s 102-90 loss to the Nets, as Greg Monroe
registered 18 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. Brandon Jennings scored 18
points as well and both J.R. Smith and Andre Drummond had 14 points. Smith and
Drummond combined for 17 rebounds.
The Pistons made 42.1 percent of their shots and only had seven turnovers.
They took an 84-83 lead with 8:49 remaining in the game, but Brooklyn used a
17-3 run behind Joe Johnson’s 15 fourth-quarter points.
“I said it to the players after the game, this is as much on me as on them if
not more so,” Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. “I couldn’t find any answers
at either end.”
Van Gundy’s squad will also welcome Milwaukee and Utah to The Palace.
Detroit won two of three games against New York last season after the Knicks
were unbeaten in the previous seven matchups. The Knicks have won 12 of the
last 15 contests in this series.
Anthony averaged 29.0 points against the Pistons last season, while Smith had
13.3 ppg for Detroit.
