The New York Knicks have been playing at an incredible level all season, but Thursday night’s performance might have been the best yet for J-Kidd and the Knickerbockers.

New York jumped all over the visiting Los Angeles Lakers and scored 41 points in the first quarter, taking full advantage of the defensive disarray in Lakerland.

By halftime the Knicks had scored 68 points on 61 percent shooting, including better than 50 percent (8-of-14) from long range. New York’s 19-point halftime lead held up despite a second half charge from the Lakers and the Knicks walked away with a 116-107 victory.

"We knew they were going to come. Kobe and them, they’re not just going to lay down," Jason said. "They made a run, but we didn’t panic. We just took care of the ball, got great looks and if we make free throws somewhere in that time, it puts the game away."

The Lakers scored their points as they will do against anybody, but the Knicks did enough on the defensive end in the second half to end up on top. J-Kidd was a big part of that effort.

His main contribution came in defending Lakers’ star Kobe Bryant. Gritty defensive performances do not show up in the box score, but they are absolutely vital to earning wins in the NBA and Jason give the Knicks one on Thursday.

According to ESPN New York, J-Kidd guarded Kobe Bryant on 18 of his 32 plays. Bryant had four of his five turnovers and averaged 0.89 points per play while Kidd was on him, compared to 1.07 points per play against all other Knicks defenders. Anytime a team can hold Bryant to 10 of 24 shooting, then they did their job on the defensive end of the floor.


Jason defended Kobe Bryant for most of the night and the Lakers’ star struggled under his control (Getty Images).

In addition to his defense, J-Kidd grabbed nine rebounds, dished out five assists and scored five points.

The Knicks have now won eight of their last nine games and pushed their undefeated home record to 9-0. At 17-5 they own the best record in the East and the second best in the NBA.

New York’s early charge was led by forward Carmelo Anthony, who scored 22 points in the first quarter. J-Kidd said the Knicks players knew Anthony was on a mission from early in the game when he made a dunk and got fouled. From that point on they let Melo do his thing.

"Melo was a video game tonight," Jason quipped. "I don’t play them, but I guess you push the X button and it goes in every time."

New York’s offense took a hit in the second half when Anthony left the game with an ankle sprain late in the third quarter. However, the Knicks were able to absorb the attempted comeback and still leave with the win.

After Anthony’s exit from the game, No. 5 scored two points and had four of his rebounds and 1 of his assists. Those were important numbers for the team after losing Carmelo, especially considering the kind of night that he was having on offense.

Though the Knicks never had to make a comeback, they once again showed how resilient they are by overcoming the injury to their scoring star. J-Kidd believes that type of fortitude will be important for the Knicks going forward.

"We did our job tonight and now we have a young team in Cleveland that plays hard and they’re well coached," Jason said. "

[Kyrie] Irving is playing, so they have a point guard who can control the game. We’re going to have our work cut out for us."

NEXT UP
The Knicks will indeed host the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night as they look to move to 10-0 on their home court.

Anthony is questionable for Saturday’s game, but J-Kidd stressed that Knicks must have a next man up mentality if their lead scorer is unable to go.

"We have to go with whoever can suit up," he said. "This team is deep enough to win games, and we’ve already proven that. Hopefully he can go though."

Saturday’s tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the game can be seen on MSG.

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