Indiana Race Away from Carmelo and Knicks

By Peyton Wesner

INDIANAPOLIS---Welcome to Indianapolis where tonight there was an Empire State of Mind as the 9-27 New York Knicks faced the 16-31 Indiana Pacers. 

Carmelo Anthony has had a less than idealistic first year in "the Big Apple" after resigning for five years and $124 million dollars. The eleven-year veteran has a great stat line of 24.3 points per game, 6.8 rebounds per game, & 3.1 assists per game and was voted to start this year's All Star Game at Madison Square Garden but he has missed twelve games due to injury and his team has only one more win than the number of times "Melo" has been named an All-Star (including this year). Just look at yesterday's starting lineup by Head Coach Derek Fisher! The Knicks started Langston Gallaway, Jason Smith, Jose Calderon, and Lou Amundson with Carmelo Anthony in an impressive 100-92 win over a Kevin Durantless Oklahoma City Thunder team. Despite the good win, my point is that the Knicks are not going anywhere in 2014-2015 and some fans are even hoping to get the number one pick in this year's NBA Draft to acquire Duke Freshman Jahlil Okafor. Nevertheless, New York has been hot of late and come in winning four of their last five after losing sixteen straight.

PG-13! Ha! More like G compared to last season. The Indiana Pacers' season could be described in one word: injuries. In fact on opening night, the Indiana Pacers had only one player from last year's starting five to be active and that was Roy Hibbert. The reinforcements eventually came in the form of David West, who missed the first fifteen games of the season, and George Hill, who has only played in eight games so far, but All-Star guard Paul George is still expected to be out for the remainder of the season with a broken leg injury he sustained on Team USA last offseason. There have been some bright spots like when Indiana defeated the Bulls in Chicago and when the Pacers finally took down the Miami Heat (LeBron-less), but the last ten games have been very ugly as the team from the "Hooiser State" is 2-8. Tonight, the Pacers hope to get their seventeenth win of the season.

Projected Lineups

New York Knicks

PG-#3 Jose Calderon (DTD)

-9.0 PPG, 3.3 RPG, & 4.5 APG.

SG-#2 Langston Gallaway

-12.8 PPG, 4.1 RPG, & 3.1 APG.

SF-#15 Carmelo Anthony (DTD)

-24.3 PPG, 6.8 RPG, & 3.1 APG.

PF-#21 Lou Amundson

-2.2 PPG, 3.3 RPG, & 1.0 APG.

C-#14 Jason Smith

-7.5 PPG, 3.4 RPG, & 1.3 APG.

6th-#5 Tim Hardaway Jr.

-11.4 PPG, 2.0 RPG, & 1.8 APG.

Indiana Pacers

PG-#32 C.J. Watson

-10.4 PPG, 2.7 RPG, & 3.7 APG.

SG-#44 Solomon Hill

-9.8 PPG, 4.3 RPG, & 2.3 APG.

SF-#3 George Hill (DTD)

-14.3 PPG, 3.5 RPG, & 2.5 APG.

PF-#21 David West

-12.8 PPG, 7.0 RPG, & 3.3 APG.

C-#55 Roy Hibbert

-11.1 PPG, 7.0 RPG, & 1.9 BPG.

6th-#2 Rodney Stuckey

-11.6 PPG, 3.7 RPG, & 3.0 APG.

Game Summary:

LOOOOOOUUUUUU! Okay, they weren't yelling it but New York Knicks Center and ten team veteran, Lou Amundson had a great game. 

Amundson got the Knicks off to an early 4-0 lead as he made a layup and nailed a jump shot on back-to-back possessions. He already doubled his points per game average in the first two minutes? He sure did as the Knicks rode Amundson's personal 4-0 run to an 8-4 lead. Where is Carmelo in all this? Anthony soon got his as he scored twelve of his team-high eighteen in less than five minutes of action. He even scored nine straight points to send the Knickerbockers into the first quarter break with a 29-22 lead. "Well here we go again", thought the Pacers faithful, but they forgot one thing: The Knicks are only good when their star is in the game.

Since Anthony played ten plus minutes in the first quarter, the All-Star forward received his rest at the beginning of the second. While the former Syracuse Orangemen was out of the game, Indiana was able to go on a 7-2 run, getting the Pacers within two points at the score of 31-29. Two minutes later Derek Fisher put Anthony back in the game but the surge was already on as Lavoy Allen scored eight of his team's next seventeen points giving Frank Vogel's group a 46-41 lead with less than three minutes remaining until the halftime entertainment. New York, in an attempt to try to steal momentum, countered with who...Anthony? No! Amundson! Who went on another personal run of this time eight points sending the Knicks to the locker room at a five point deficit.

When both teams came out onto the floor to warm-up for the second half, the fans had the feeling that this game would go down to the wire. The thought would prove not to be the case.

The third quarter started out with "the Big Man wearing the Double Nickel", Roy Hibbert nailing two jump shots provoking the Knicks to call a time-out to contain the run. It didn't help. Hibbert continued his dominance by scoring six more of his team high eighteen points raising the lead to twelve. Unfortunately for the Knicks it got worse from there as Rodney Stuckey scored five unanswered and then Solomon Hill, after an Amundson made free throw and Anthony jumper, drained two three pointers starting a 13-0 spurt to better the advantage to thirty points. Game Over? Yeah it was.

So did the Knicks get killed by thirty? Sorry to disappoint you New York haters out there but they did not since both teams rescinded their starters and New York's second string outscored the Pacers' 21-14 making the final score 103-82.

Players of the Game:

New York: Lou Amundson 17 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 block.

Indiana: Roy Hibbert 18 points, 10 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block

Coming Up:

New York: Hosts the 12-34 Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden.

Indiana: Hosts the 16-28 Sacramento Kings at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.