NEW YORK_The sting and stink of their one-sided opening-night loss lingered for a few days, and the New York Knicks played like a team that just wanted to get it out of their system.
Derrick Rose dazzled with some hard drives to the rim, including a nasty crossover that left Mike Conley Jr. flat-footed. Joakim Noah made his presence felt with his passing and his passion. Kristaps Porzingis brought the Madison Square Garden crowd to its feet with a two-handed dunk in transition after leaving from a hash mark, and getting fouled as he stretched his long arms up and over the rim.
The Knicks held double-digit leads in every quarter and beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 111-104, in their home opener at Madison Square Garden, giving Jeff Hornacek his first win as the Knicks coach.
Before the game, Hornacek said the Knicks were looking for "a little redemption" after losing by 29 points to the Cavaliers Tuesday, and they got it _ albeit against a far inferior team than Cleveland.
Porzingis led the Knicks with 21 points. Carmelo Anthony scored 20 and Courtney Lee, who was scoreless opening night, added 16.
Rose had 13 points in his first game at MSG as a Knick, and Noah 10 rebounds and seven assists before fouling out to a huge ovation. Noah also pounded his chest after two stops, leading to chants of "Joa-kim No-ah" in the Garden.
Noah addressed the crowd before the game, thanking them fans for their support and ended it by saying, "Let's get it" to a loud cheers.
The Knicks looked like they were well on their way to a rout on several occasions. They led by 16 in the first quarter, 18 in the second and 16 in the third. But the Grizzlies were down 87-85 with the ball on two occasions in the fourth and couldn't convert each time.
Then Anthony took a feed from Noah, scored inside and was fouled. He completed the three-point play with 7:34, starting a 12-0 run that put the Knicks up 99-85 with 5:26 remaining.
Memphis cut it to 106-101 with 1:25 left after a Gasol three-pointer. The Knicks scored the next five points, three coming on free throws by Anthony to put the Grizzlies away.
The Knicks wasted no time in putting distance between themselves and the Grizzlies. The crowd already was fired up for opening night but the Knicks energized them more by making six of their first seven shots and racing out to a 16-6 lead less than five minutes into the game.
The ball movement was much better than it was in Cleveland. The Knicks shot 60 percent in the first led 32-19 after one. Lee got going right away and shot 4-for-5 and had nine points in the first quarter.
The Knicks needed just 17:26 to surpass their second-half point total (43) from Tuesday night against the Cavaliers. Noah, who was invisible and scoreless in Cleveland, showed why he's arguably the best passing center in the league. He had six assists in just 12 first-half minutes.
"You want to try to establish a little home-court advantage when you come into your gym that teams go 'Man, we can't get a win at that place,'" Hornacek said. "It starts right now. We have to start to establish that. If we can do that it gives us a heads up on teams as the season goes on."
Things got sloppy for the Knicks at the end of the first half, though. They misfired on their last seven shots, and shot 3-for-7 from the foul line over the final 3:51 and allowed the Grizzlies to get within 57-49 at the half.
After Memphis cut it to six to open the third quarter, the Knicks seemed committed to putting the Grizzlies in their rearview mirror again. They went on a 16-6 run and forged ahead 73-57 after a Porzingis' dunk in transition that became a three-point play.
But the Grizzlies came back and trimmed the Knicks' lead to 80-77 with 1:11 left in the quarter.
