New York played their game today, the three pointers were falling and Amare Stoudemire resembled his early season MVP form.
Stoudemire lead all scorers with a season-high 41 points and in the second half got to the basket at will. Today's game was a far cry from his Friday night 7-19, 21 point performance.Today, Amare was efficient from the floor going an amazing 17-21 from the floor and had 12 points in the forth quarter to hold the Sixers at bay when they made a couple late charges at the Knick lead.
Amare wasn't the only big-time performer today at the Garden, Landry Fields had a season high 25 points on the day including a three point dagger late in the forth quarter that pretty much sealed this one.
The Knicks were firing on all cylinders from three point range, shooting 11-27 from beyond the arc and they had five of them in the forth quarter alone, three of them came from Fields.
The Sixers have to be disappointed in not being able to get this one, but should feel good about the fact they held serve at home and have cut into the Knicks lead considerably despite the loss, and the Sixers played relatively well as they shot 54% from the field and Elton Brand had another really good game for Philadelphia.
Brand went for 28 points and five rebounds and these last two games were his highest scoring games of the season by far, his play in the games to come will be interesting to follow since the schedule does not get any easier for the Sixers.
The Sixers have the Hawks, Magic and Spurs coming up and the Atlanta and Orlando games are on back-to -back days so the road gets rockier for the Sixers, but these are games that the Sixers have to continue to show up in if people are to believe that this team is truly improving. Stretches like this define a team and even though a lot of people are feeling better about this group, that feeling could change in a hurry.
The Sixers still have a lot to prove and a long way to go before they can, but at least the ride will be a fun one.
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