The Sports Xchange
Nov 7, 2017
NEW YORK -- Kristaps Porzingis scored 28 points and Doug McDermott added a season-high 20 as the New York Knicks won for the sixth time in seven games, beating the Charlotte Hornets 118-113 on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Porzingis dominated for the Knicks early and McDermott took over late against the Hornets, who led for almost the entire game. Tim Hardaway Jr. added 19 points for New York (6-4).
For the second consecutive game, the Knicks waged a furious late rally, as the Hornets led by as many as 15 points and by 13 with 1:07 left in the third quarter.
Unlike New York's Sunday rally from 18 behind against the Indiana Pacers, though, it wasn't Porzingis and the Knicks' starters doing the damage, but the McDermott-led bench.
McDermott had 10 of his points in the fourth quarter, scoring seven points in the first four minutes of the period. Porzingis re-entered the game with 6:27 left and scored seven points in the final two minutes, including a driving layup with 11 seconds left and the shot clock dwindling to put the Knicks up by three.
Dwight Howard, Kemba Walker and Malik Monk each had 21 points to lead Charlotte, which lost for the third straight game.
The Knicks shot 60 percent from the floor, while the Hornets hit 46.2 percent of their shots.
Charlotte (5-6) got off to a scorching start, outscoring New York 41-32 in the first quarter after shooting 59 percent from the field and 78 percent from 3-point range.
Jeremy Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3.6 seconds left to give the Hornets their biggest lead of the game to that point, and Howard had 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Marvin Williams added seven of his 12 points in the quarter.
The second quarter was much of the same, as Charlotte increased its lead to 69-58 going into the half despite the Knicks shooting 11 of 17 for the quarter. The Hornets benefited from 11 first-half New York turnovers and had a slight first-half rebounding advantage (19-16).
Porzingis had 19 first-half points, including 15 in the first quarter, to lead the Knicks, but was largely quiet in the second half until exploding late in the game.
NOTES: The Knicks are 36-15 at home in the all-time series against the Hornets. ... Charlotte concludes a four-game road-trip at Boston on Friday. ... The Knicks are expected to get back the services of the suspended C Joakim Noah for the Monday game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. As it stands, the Knicks' roster is full with 15 players, so they will have to make a move before then to create space. ... New York plays away from home for the first time since Oct. 29 on Wednesday with a visit to Orlando. ... The Tuesday game was New York F Kristaps Porzingis' first since winning Eastern Conference player of the week honors after averaging more than 33 points last week.