Over the course of the Knicks’ winning streak that last few weeks, Jason Kidd has often found subtle ways to impact the game and help his team win.

On Sunday, as the Knicks headed to Oklahoma City to face the Thunder, Jason left the subtleties at home and came out firing.


Jason Kidd scored 14 points, including four threes and Carmelo Anthony tallied 36 in the Knicks’ win over the Thunder (Getty Images).

J-Kidd knocked down four of six attempts from deep as he tallied 14 points, grabbed six rebounds and added a pair of assists and steals to complement another outstanding performance by Carmelo Anthony (36 points) as the Knicks made a statement with a 125-120 win over the Thunder on their home floor.

The victory extended New York’s winning streak to 12 games and gave the franchise its first 50-win season since the 99-00 campaign.

"This is probably one of the biggest wins we’ve had in a long time," Anthony said afterward. "Just for the simple fact that it’s on the road, it’s against a great Thunder team. We’ve been playing well. For us to come out here and keep our composure and win on the road, and win here, this is a tough place to win, we came out here and did it."

For the Knicks to get it done, they needed contributions from all over. They got plenty of them from deep as seven of the nine Knicks in the rotation hit at least one trey, for a total of 15. Few were bigger than the four off the hand of J-Kidd, three of which came in a high-octane opening quarter.

Jason entered the contest halfway through the first quarter with the Thunder in the midst of a 10-0 run. He was able to quiet the OKC surge with a trey two minutes later that trimmed OKC’s deficit to four. Less than a minute after that, No. 5 connected again from deep, off a feed for Tyson Chandler, to pull the Knicks within two, 22-20.

Russell Westbrook followed with a short jumper to double Oklahoma City’s lead but after the teams traded fruitless possessions, J-Kidd buried his third trey of the afternoon to bring the Knicks within one. No. 5 added a steal that led to a Felton layup and an assist to Chris Copeland late in the first, and despite allowing OKC to shoot a whopping 65 percent in the quarter, the Knicks trailed by just one entering the second.

In that second quarter, the Knicks continued their offensive surge, but it was their defense that stepped up to make the difference. Led by 11 each from Copeland and Anthony, New York scored 35 points and made 60 percent of their shots in the second. Meanwhile the defense limited OKC to just 25 points in the quarter on 43 percent shooting. Thanks to that effort, New York led by nine at the break.

"It was a team effort. We played a lot of fundamental basketball tonight. It was great to see," Chandler said afterward. "We score with the best of them, but we’re also able to get stops down the stretch. Because we got stops down the stretch was the reason why we were able to win."

But they wouldn’t be able to finish without a fight from the Thunder, who shot an incredible 70 percent in the third quarter. The Knicks were nearly able to keep pace in the quarter by forcing four turnovers, including Jason’s second steal of the game.

That theft came with the Knicks clinging to a three-point lead and he added a timely driving layup late in the quarter to extend a one-point New York lead back to three. By the end of the quarter the Knicks managed to stabilize things while never falling behind and took a seven-point edge into the final frame.

A Chandler dunk at the outset of the fourth pushed New York’s lead to nine, but OKC followed with a 16-6 run to finally take the lead on a Durant jumper with under seven minutes to go. The teams traded fruitless possessions and after a Durant miss J-Kidd led the Knicks up court with a chance to regain the lead. On the other end, he got open, took a feed from J.R. Smith and buried a trey to put New York up two with 5:49 remaining.

The Knicks only briefly trailed for the rest of the game, but were able to answer every punch from the Thunder thanks to an outstanding effort by the quintet of J-Kidd, Anthony, Chandler, Smith and Raymond Felton, to close out a monumental win.

"We

[were] always convinced that we was a good team in this NBA, we [were] one of the top teams that’s out there," Anthony said. "Our confidence would always have us believing that we’re one of the better teams in the NBA."

That confidence was justified on Sunday and that, plus a 12-game winning streak during which the Knicks have beaten some of the best teams in the league, has allowed coach Mike Woodson to think even bigger.

"I’m looking at the big picture," Woodson said. "This is all great. We can accomplish winning our division, securing that second spot. The next step is trying to win a title. I’m in it for that and that only."

NEXT UP
With Sunday’s win, the Knicks wrapped up the Western Conference portion of their regualr season schedule with a record of 17-13 against teams from the West.

They’ll close their season with six in-conference games over the next two weeks, including showdowns with the playoff-bound Bulls, Pacers and Hawks.

But first, the Knicks will try to extend their win-streak to a baker’s dozen when they host the Washington Wizards at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. EDT and the game can be seen on MSG.

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