NEW YORK _ The triangle offense is back, but in the end it was Carmelo Anthony's clutch one-on-one play that carried the Knicks down the stretch.
Anthony scored 37 points and hit the game-winning basket with three-tenths of a second left to the lead the Knicks to a 110-109 victory over the Sixers Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks had squandered a 17-point lead and trailed by one after Jahlil Okafor scored inside with nine seconds left. Out of the timeout, Derrick Rose had the ball and passed to Anthony on the left wing. Anthony got to the baseline and got enough space over Robert Covington to drill the decisive baseline jumper.
"It never should have came to a heroic shot like that but we'll take the win," Anthony said during an on-court interview.
Anthony, who shot 15-for-25, scored the Knicks only two baskets in the final 90 seconds of the game. He missed a dunk in crunch time but more than made up for it with the game-winner.
Derrick Rose scored 18 points and Justin Holiday 14 for the Knicks (24-35).
Okafor finished with 28 points and 10 rebounds and Robert Coving 20 and 10 for the Sixers, who were without their best player Joel Embiid because of a contused left knee.
Jeff Hornacek admitted before the game the Knicks are running Phil Jackson's offense of choice much more frequently than they had at any point this season.
Anthony had no problem finding his shots with the Knicks playing a heavy dose of triangle Saturday night. But he rarely has trouble scoring no matter the offense. He scored 32 points through three quarters.
If the Knicks would have lost this game, they would have fallen behind the Sixers and into 13th place. The Knicks have visions of jumping over four teams _ improbable as it may be _ to make the playoffs. The odds of jumping over five teams with 23 games left would be miniscule.
The Knicks lost to the Sixers at the buzzer on T.J. McConnell's basket in January after blowing a 10-point lead in the final 2:29. The Knicks came dangerously close to letting that happen again.
They were ahead by 17 in the third and were up 14 early in the fourth. But they let the Sixers get back into the game. Philadelphia scored nine consecutive points to cut it to 103-100 after two Okafor foul shots with 2:26 left. On the previous Knicks' possession, Anthony missed a dunk.
But Rose ended the Knicks' 3:12 drought with a floater to put the Knicks up five with 2:14 remaining. After McConnell scored, Kyle O'Quinn made one-of-two free throws to give the Knicks a 106-102 lead. But the Knicks gave up a wide-open three-pointer to McConnell and he buried it to make it a one-point game.
Anthony scored on a pull-up jumper to give the Knicks a 108-105 lead. But Okafor scored inside. After Lance Thomas turned it over, a wild sequence that included an O-Quinn blocked shot ended with Okafor scoring and giving the Sixers the lead.
The Knicks had one more shot and Anthony delivered. On the final play, Dario Saric's side out-of-bounds pass at the basket was intercepted by O'Quinn.
The Knicks went away from playing the triangle earlier in the season because it didn't fit the strengths of their players. Rose and Anthony are better pick-and-roll and isolation players. But it's come back and it could be here to stay.
Hornacek initially said they are running it more frequently because he thought it would give them better balance defensively. He said the Knicks were often out of position, particularly when Rose would penetrate and try to score inside.
If he misses, he's usually under the basket and the Knicks in each corner are out of position to run back when teams get out in transition.
The Knicks still need to work on their halfcourt defense. But Hornacek also said the triangle is back to help the Knicks find more balance offensively.
"We felt like some of the early stuff was OK," Hornacek said. "But we had stretches where we went cold and we didn't get much scoring. That's when we wanted to really try and go to that. We know we can get some pretty decent shots. Melo can get it inside. It's a pretty good offense for him. Try to slow the pace a little bit. That's why we're doing more of it."
