ORLANDO, Fla. — Yes, this was Fantasyland.
The Knicks built a 24-point halftime lead, but then lost Carmelo Anthony to a sprained ankle and Raymond Felton to a groin strain in the second half. The collapse was on. All looked lost as the Magic closed to within a point late in the fourth quarter, but the Knicks somehow escaped with a 103-98 victory at Amway Center.
Only in Disney City — as unlikely heroes Andrea Bargnani and Iman Shumpert carried them home. Bargnani hit two big buckets down the stretch and Shumpert made two big defensive plays to salvage a game looked to be turning into a giant nightmare. The Knicks moved to 9-18, but Anthony's status was not immediately known.
Anthony sprained his left ankle with 7:26 left in the third quarter and the Knicks up 20. His status for the Christmas Day game against the Thunder is unclear.
Anthony committed an offensive foul and landed on Tobias Harris' foot. He came up limping severely and hobbled to the bench, never to return. He finished with 19 points after spurring the team in the first half.
Felton, making his return after a six-game absence, went down to the court with 3:15 left. After being down for nearly a minute, he got up and hobbled directly to the locker room.
But Bargnani held off Orlando's monster charge. He made two straight buckets before Harris lost it out of bounds with the Knicks leading 95-91 with 2:00 left, clinging for dear life.
Struggling Shumpert intercepted pass by Aaron Afflalo and went all the way in for a layup and 97-91 lead with 1:40 left. In a huge defensive play, Shumpert slapped it away from Glenn Davis, who was barreling in on a breakaway layup. The ball went out of bounds with 1:02 left and awarded, after a review, to the Magic, but they couldn't convert. Davis missed a jumper and Nikola Vucevic fouled Tyson Chandler battling for the rebound.
Chandler finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds. J.R. Smith had a splendid first half before petering out to finish with 18 points.
The Knicks built a 65-41 lead at halftime after Anthony and Smith combined to score 31 points. Anthony had 17, capping the first half by hitting a left-side jumper as the buzzer sounded. The Knicks walked off the court trying to contain their smirks after outscoring Orlando 36-14 in the second quarter.
Smith pumped in 15 during his finest half of the season. Before the game, Woodson lamented Smith's season, feeling Smith missing the first five games and all of training camp damaged a chance to establish chemistry.
As one NBA general manager said the other day in assessing the Knicks' wretched season, "J.R. was their second-best player last year. Now look at him.''
Smith had a different bounce on his jump shot and he nailed all three of his 3-pointers, going 5-of-7 overall in the half. The Knicks attacked the boards hard after being slaughtered underneath by Memphis on Saturday. They had a 26-19 edge in the first half as Chandler was a monster with eight boards in his third game back. The Knicks finished with a 47-44 edge and Chandler totaled 11 rebounds.
With the injuries and Smith's marijuana suspensions, this was the first time the Knicks had their presumed top six all playing in one game — Chandler, Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire, Smith, Shumpert and Felton all together this season. Now they may be back to square one.
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