Carmelo Anthony led the New York Knicks to a 109-93 win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday at Madison Square Garden to end their seven-game losing streak.
Anthony scored 28 points on 10-for-14 shooting from the field to go along with nine rebounds and three assists, while JR Smith added 28 points for the Knicks, who broke away in the second period.
With the game tied at 31 after the first period, the Knicks stepped up on defense, limiting the Nuggets to just eight points, while sustaining their offensive attack with 31 points in the same period.
"I thought in that second quarter we played great defense, buckling down, keeping them out of transition," Anthony said via ESPN. "It led to our offensive end. Once we got stops on the defensive end, we felt confident enough to go down there and make some shots and run our offense and do what we had to do."
Arron Afflalo led the Nuggets with 18 points, Ty Lawson added 17 points and nine assists, while Kenneth Faried finished with 16 points and nine rebounds for the Nuggets, who dropped to 2-7 this season.
"I thought we started out the game getting what we wanted, but it was an exchange, we were scoring, they were scoring," Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said. "In the second quarter we were tentative offensively and we had a long drought with no penetration, turnovers missed free throws and they slowly continued to score."
Meanwhile, James Harden played big down the stretch to lead the Houston Rockets to a hard-earned 69-65 win over his former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Harden, who finished with 19 points to go along with nine rebounds and five assists, hit the go-ahead three-pointer with the game tied with 1:19 left to play in the match. The Thunder had chances to tie the game, but failed to convert in the ensuing possessions, allowing the Rockets to escape with the close win.
Dwight Howard added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Rockets, who also got 12 points and eight rebounds from starting point guard Patrick Beverley.
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