Carmelo Anthony had plenty of help against the struggling Philadelphia 76ers.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 28 points as the New York Knicks had four players score 20 or more points and defeated Philadelphia 123-110 on Monday night, sending the 76ers to their 17th straight loss.
Amare Stoudemire added 23 points to tie a season high, and Anthony and J.R. Smith each scored 22 as the Knicks won their fourth game in a row and fell just short of their season-high points total.
“I love nights like this,” Anthony said. “Four guys with 20-plus points. Sharing the ball. Making plays. Having fun out there. Taking the load off me. I love nights like that.”
Hardaway did most of his scoring in the fourth quarter, opening the period with a 3-pointer and making five of his eight shots, including three 3-pointers as the Knicks’ six-point lead entering the final quarter grew to as many as 21.
Overall, he scored 13 in the final 12 minutes.
“I was just trying to get myself open,” Hardaway said. “I just came in today and I just started hitting my shots. Everyone was moving the ball and taking open shots. `Stat’ got us going. J.R. was getting going and then Pablo (Prigioni) and everybody started finding me, so I just wanted to get myself going.”
Stoudemire started his fifth straight game for the Knicks. He had come off the bench in all but one other game this season.
“It feels great, Stoudemire said. “I have been working extremely hard to get back to my normal self. My confidence is there. It never left.”
Michael Carter-Williams recorded a triple-double with 23 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists for Philadelphia, mired in its longest skid since the 1972-73 season.
“I am trying not to think about it,” Carter-Williams said. “We lose and we have to move on to the next one. People are writing about it and that’s fine, but we are going to stay focused as a team.”
Philadelphia did get off to a good start, taking a 29-17 lead on James Anderson’s 3-pointer with 2:45 left in the first quarter.
Smith scored 12 of his points in the opening quarter.
“We were just trying to chip away at it,” Smith said. “We’ve been in that situation numerous times this year, so we just tried to chip away at it and not hit any home-run plays.”
The Knicks did pull to within five at the end of the quarter and were even at 61 at halftime.
The 76ers took a 67-66 lead following two free throws by Jarvis Varnado with 10:22 left in the third quarter, but the Knicks scored the next eight points to take a 74-67 lead.
The lead was short-lived, however, as Philadelphia countered with its own 8-0 run to reclaim a one-point lead.
After Thaddeus Young’s short jumper gave Philadelphia a 79-78 lead, the Knicks went on a 9-0 run with Anthony scoring the final five points to give the Knicks the lead for good.
“We finally got solid defensively in the third quarter and, in the fourth, we brought it home,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “We made shots. That has been a key to our four-game winning streak.”
New York held a 91-85 lead after three quarters and went on to take its biggest lead of the game, 110-89, on the fourth of Hardaway’s five 3-pointers with 7:37 left.
The Knicks never led by less than 12 the rest of the way.
Raymond Felton added 13 points for the Knicks.
Tony Wroten also scored 23 points for Philadelphia. Young finished with 18 and Anderson had 17 for the 76ers.
“Tim Hardaway is a good player. Carmelo is Carmelo,” 76ers coach Brett Brown said. “You look around the gym and you have to pick your poison. They really have a lot of offensive firepower.”
NOTES: The Knicks’ highest points total of the season came in a 125-96 win over Charlotte on Jan. 24. … The last time the Knicks had four 20-point scorers in a game was against the Celtics on April 12, 2012 (Anthony 35, Steve Novak 25, Smith 25, Tyson Chandler 20). … Chandler was not with the Knicks due to “personal reasons.” … The Knicks have purchased a NBA D-League team which will play its home games in White Plains, N.Y., beginning next season. The team’s nickname has not yet been decided. … Shannon Brown and Earl Clark were both signed to second 10-day contracts by the Knicks on Monday.
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