(Reuters) – Bench player Steve Novak led a sizzling three-point shooting display as the New York Knicks mixed spectacular offense with a much improved defense to stun the red-hot San Antonio Spurs with a 100-83 win at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
With Novak making five-of-seven attempts from beyond the arc to total 15 points and Carmelo Anthony adding a game-high 23, the Knicks snapped the Spurs’ seven-game winning streak in rampant style.
There were further stellar contributions from the New York bench with J.R. Smith weighing in with 20 points and Amare Stoudemire 10 as the home team outshot San Antonio by 44.4 percent to 26.5 from behind the three-point line.
The Atlantic pacesetting Knicks broke the game wide open in the fourth quarter, starting out with a 15-2 run, to improve their record to 22-10.
“After a great start this season defensively, the last 10 games we went down,” Knicks reserve point guard Pablo Prigioni, an NBA rookie at the age of 35, said courtside after finishing with six points and nine assists.
“The coach showed clips to us and showed us how we were playing now and how we played then. Today we came back to that level.”
