The New York Knicks finished up their road trip on Monday night in Utah with a victory they desperately needed.
Without Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler and Amar’e Stoudemire the Knicks found themselves extremely shorthanded. But New York dug deep and put together a complete performance to salvage a 90-83 win over the Utah Jazz, on the final night of a five-game road trip that saw them drop the first four games in stunning fashion.
Afterward, Jason Kidd, who finished with seven points, five assists, three rebounds and a steal, and was a +8 in nearly 28 minutes off the bench lauded the fortitude of his teammates and get a win they had to have.
"We were short. That was a small team we had out there, so we had to rebound," he said. "We had to take care of the ball and we had to make shots, which we hadn’t been doing on this trip. We made big shots at big points where they were making a run, but the biggest thing was we got stops when we had to. Our defense was big today."
That defense limited Utah to just 83 points on 38 percent shooting, including just 39 points on 29 percent from the field in the second half. In addition to forcing Utah to miss shots in bunches, the Knicks defense created 17 turnovers, which allowed them to take over the game in the second half after falling behind by as much as six in the third quarter. J-Kidd noted that a number of things had to happen for the Knicks to play that well on defense and it all came together at the right time.
"Communication, understanding the game plan and executing," he said. "We were small and guys just played hard. We were talking out there and you have to do that if you want to win."
NEXT UP
The Knicks return home to Madison Square Garden for a brief stop on Wednesday night before going back out on the road.
Before they depart again, they’ll host the Orlando Magic in the fourth and final showdown between the teams this season. The Knicks have won the previous three meetings, by an average of more than 11 points per game. New York will look to finish off the season sweep on Wednesday night.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the game can be seen on MSG.
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