Knicks roll again, crush the Pacers

Updated: 2012-03-18 07:56

By Associated Press in New York (China Daily)

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If "Linsanity" really is dead, Knicks fans may have already found its replacement.

Jeremy Lin and Amare Stoudemire, getting a break during a blowout, saw a sign at Madison Square Garden that read "Woodsanity".

"I told Jeremy, I said, 'This is getting out of control'," Stoudemire said.

But whatever Mike Woodson has changed - and he insisted it wouldn't be too much - sure is working for the Knicks.

Tyson Chandler scored 16 points, Lin had 13 and New York rolled to its second straight dominant victory under its interim coach, beating the Indiana Pacers 115-100 on Friday night.

Reserves J.R. Smith (16 points) and Steve Novak (12) had big games again for the Knicks in the opener of a home-and-home series. Two nights after beating Portland by 42 on the day Mike D'Antoni resigned, New York led this one by as much as 32 and shut down Pacers star Danny Granger, who had angered them by saying Friday and Saturday were two "very winnable games".

Instead, the Pacers never led and had their two-game winning streak snapped. Granger shot 4 of 15 for nine points, while All-Star Roy Hibbert was 2 of 10 and scored four. Darren Collison led Indiana with 15 points.

"We've got to understand what we're facing. This is an extremely talented team, maybe one of the most talented teams in the NBA, and they're playing with a renewed sense of urgency because of the coaching change like all teams do with coaching changes," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. "So they're a force right now."

Carmelo Anthony, expected to have a bigger role in Woodson's offense, shot as poorly as he was under D'Antoni and finished with 12 points on 4-for-12 shooting. Stoudemire was only 3 of 9 for eight points, but neither played more than 28 minutes in the blowout.

Much of the focus since Wednesday has been on what the changes Woodson would make could mean for the Knicks, especially Lin, a breakout star who flourished under the freedom given to point guards and the pick-and-roll schemes in D'Antoni's system.

There was speculation he could lose his starting job, and the back page of the New York Post on Friday even featured a tombstone with the inscription "R.I.P. Linsanity," the term that arose out of the Lin sensation that started last month.

But Woodson insisted before the game that he wasn't planning to make many changes and that Lin would remain a starter with a big role. And he said the idea that his offense relies mostly on isolation sets is "so untrue", adding his team in Atlanta had six double-figure scorers and was second in the league in offensive efficiency.

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