NEW YORK _ Stop if you've heard this one before, but it was a victory the Knicks needed, with the season slipping away and trade winds blowing their star forward, Carmelo Anthony, hither and yon.
This time, they got it, beating the Hornets, 110-107, on Friday night at Madison Square Garden. But it was a strange night of mixed results for Anthony, who heard fans began to grow noticeably impatient with him.
A 3-pointer by Courtney Lee (16 points) with 1:39 left made it 102-101. Brandon Jennings (15 points) followed with a corner 3 that gave the Knicks a 105-101 edge with 1:19 left.
But Anthony got to enjoy a big moment, too, hitting a fadeaway jumper with 13 seconds left to give the Knicks a 109-105 lead.
Earlier in the fourth, things had gotten awkward for Anthony when he lined up for a shot with the Knicks trailing 99-93. Fans began to jeer before he even made his attempt. Then he hit the backboard, not the rim, prompting a smattering of boos.
There were other dissatisfied murmurs when he missed other key shots late in the game.
The Knicks (21-27) played down the stretch without Derrick Rose, who was sidelined after suffering a sprained left ankle. They had lost 14 of their previous 18 games.
Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis scored 18 points each, but Anthony shot 8-for-26 overall and 1-for-7 from 3-point range. He also had 11 rebounds.
Kemba Walker had 31 points, 10 rebounds and five assists and Nicolas Batum added 15 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists for the Hornets.
Porzingis scored 10 points in the first 5{ minutes, six of them on two 3-pointers. It was a heartening sign, given that Porzingis had suffered through some shooting woes of late.
Jeff Hornacek said before the game that the staff is working with Porzingis to keep his shot from getting too flat. "We call it kind of a slingshot," Hornacek said. "He takes his upper arm and just kind of lets it go rather than lifting up."
Anthony, who before the game again faced questions about the potential for him to be traded, got off to a slow shooting start, but with a minute left in the first quarter, his three-pointer gave the Knicks a 27-21 lead.
The two highlights of the second quarter were a pair of driving, emphatic dunks by Porzingis, the second of which gave the Knicks a 39-31 lead.
At that point Porzingis had 14 points and had shot 6-for-6 from the floor. In his previous eight games, he had averaged only 13.3 points, and shot 43 percent.
The Knicks' lead grew to 52-41 on a three-pointer by Lee.
Anthony scored six points in the first three minutes of the third, but the Hornets would not go away. Soon enough, recently minted All-Star (and native New Yorker) Kemba Walker was hitting a 3-pointer to give Charlotte a 65-64 lead, a margin that later grew to eight points.
The fans' mixed emotions about Anthony were evident late in the third, when there were scattered jeers after he missed the first two of three free throws, then mock cheers when he made the third.
The Knicks' defense was lacking in the third, during which they allowed the Hornets to score 36 points.
