Knicks Defeat Hawks In Overtime

New York Knicks defeated Atlanta Hawks 104-100 in over time at the Philips Arena and it was all thanks to Stephon Marbury who scored 38 points and had 9 assists. Marbury was assisted by Steve Francis who scored 26 point and this helped the Knicks to overcome the double digit deficit in the second half.

This was the Knicks second consecutive win for the first time since February 2007. Francis’ score was also his season high. Besides Marbury and Francis, Renaldo Balkman threw 12 point and 13 boards.

Now the Knicks are just one game behind the New Jersey Nets for the last playoff spot in the Easter Conference.

For Atlanta Hawks, Joe Johnson scored 32 points with 8 rebounds and 7 assists. Josh Smith scored 20 points and had 11 boards and 3 blocks. This is the fifth straight game that the Hawks have lost.

In the early part of the overtime session, the Knicks and Hawks were tied at 90 a piece. Just over a minute into the stanza, Marbury gave Knicks the lead with a three pointer. He again extended the lead to by six with a trey when just three minutes of the overtime play was left and the score stood at 96-90. There was just no stopping Marbury. He scored another three point and the Knicks reach 101-93. Atlanta did try to fight back with managed to reach 103-100 but could not go all the way.

During the game, the Hawks led for most of the time. After the first quarter they were 31-15 and 49-37 at halftime. In the third quarter, Atlanta had a lead and the score was 65-51. However, the Knicks suddenly had a spurt of points and they scored 11 of the last 17 points.