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Nuggets-Knicks: 56k | 300k  |
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New York traded Camby to Denver in the draft-day deal that brought Antonio McDyess to the Knicks. Camby, who returned from a hip injury on Friday, had anticipated returning to Madison Square Garden but was sidelined due to a sprained ankle.
Camby was forced to watch from the bench in a suit and saw his teammates collapse in the second half.
The Nuggets led a majority of the first 2 1/2 quarters before the Knicks went on an 27-12 run bridging the third and fourth periods. Sprewell sparked the burst with a 3-pointer and Howard Eisley gave the Knicks the lead for good at 68-65 on shot from beyond the arc with three minutes left.
Houston capped the third quarter with a technical free throws and opened the fourth with another as Denver committed a pair of defensive three-second violations just 22 seconds apart. He sank a pair of free throws after being fouled for 77-67 cushion just 21 seconds into the final period.
New York had its largest lead at 89-77 on a jumper by Michael Doleac with 3:56 remaining and cruised to its third straight victory, matching a season high.
"I don't think it matters who we play anymore. I think it just matters as long as we win games," Knicks coach Don Chaney said. "You can build off of any win. If you come out to play a certain way, you have a chance to win and beat anybody. The same thing holds true if you don't come out and play a certain way. You can get beat by anybody."
It was a rebound game for Houston, who scored just four points on 1-of-7 shooting in Monday's win over Miami. He made 10-of-18 shots, including 4-of-6 3-pointers, and 13-of-13 free throws.
"I didn't really try to force too much. I was just trying to be aggressive," he said. "That is why you have to take it one day at a time and one game at a time. Sometimes you have games like that and sometimes you have games like this. You just have to take the good with the bad, but the most important thing is that we are able to win both of them."
"I don't worry too much about Allan," Chaney said. "If Allan has a bad game, he usually bounces back pretty well. The other night he had a poor game, simply because he wasn't feeling well. But I knew he would come back. He never follows a bad game with another bad game. He always comes back from bad to good."
The Knicks buried 10-of-19 3-pointers and made 19-of-21 free throws.
Clarence Weatherspoon collected 16 points and nine rebounds for New York, which won despite being outworked inside.
Denver held a 42-20 advantage in points in the paint and scored 22 second-chance points compared to only 10 for New York, which saw Kurt Thomas held scoreless in just 16 minutes due to foul trouble.
Juwan Howard scored 28 points and former Knick Donnell Harvey had 19 as Denver fell to 3-17 on the road, including 0-8 against Eastern Conference foes.
"I'm tired of hearing about frustration, because I'm encouraged," Denver coach Jeff Bzdelik said. "We are starting three rookies, and we're in games. We're not getting blown out, we're in games."
Thomas picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter. Harvey made two free throws and rookie Nene Hilario had consecutive dunks to give the Nuggets a 59-50 lead less two minutes into the third quarter.