Baseline to Baseline recaps: Lots of ‘Melo, not much else for Knicks

Welcome to PBT’s roundup of the games yesterday in NBA action. Or, what you missed while breaking your New Year’s resolutions already….

Nuggets 92, Clippers 78: The Clippers win streak dies at 17on a night they were just ice-cold from the floor — 38.5 percent as a team, with leading scorer Jamal Crawford shooting 2-of-11. Denver played well but it was just one of those nights for Los Angeles. We broke it all down as our game of the night.

Trail Blazers 105, Knicks 100: Carmelo Anthony showed up to play — 45 points on just 24 shots, plus seven rebounds. J.R. Smith was trying to go with him, gunning his way to 28 points. The rest of the Knicks… not so much. They were a step slow on defense and for reasons unknown it took them to the third quarter to figure out that Portland plays J.J. Hickson at center and he can’t stop a Tyson Chandler roll to the bucket.

Portland pulled away with an 11-0 run in the second and held on at the end to get the win. Portland took at advantage of a sloppy Knicks defense to shoot 50.6 percent on the night. Nicolas Batum had 26, LaMarcus Aldridge had 18, J.J. Hickson 19.

And Amar’e Stoudemire was back. Not shockingly he looked rusty. He started 0-4 shooting and is a little ways away from being his old self. Lineups with Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler together were +2 in five minutes of action. That is not indicative of much, just something to watch going forward.

Sixers 103, Lakers 99: And the Lakers fall below .500 again because they couldn’t defend. That sound familiar? It’s been like that all season and the return of Steve Nash and the better play of late didn’t change the Lakers narrative — this looked and felt like a lot of Lakers games this year.

Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner did the damage — both would shake loose of their perimeter defender pretty easily and get a good look then knock down the shot. This wasn’t some brilliant Doug Collins scheme, this was those two exploiting the Lakers defenders in isolation sets all night. Holiday had 26 points on 10-of-19 shooting plus had 10 assists. Turner had 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting, plus had 13 rebounds.

Meanwhile, Pau Gasol was 2-of-12 and Dwight Howard 1-of-7 shooting. Kobe Bryant was back to being a gunner who scored 36, Metta World Peace had 13 points and needed 17 shots to get them. As a team the Lakers were 3-of-22 from three point range.

Hawks 95, Hornets 86: This was the fourth game in five nights on the road for the Hawks, the kind of game where a lot of teams just roll over. Credit Atlanta, they found the energy for an 11-2 third quarter run to pull away for the win. That run featured a Kyle Kover three but the guy driving it was Josh Smith, who finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Al Horford pitched in 20 points on the night. Ryan Anderson had 23 for the Hornets. Eric Gordon looked like a guy who just came off knee surgery and is rusty and not in game shape yet — which he is — and was 5-of-17 shooting in 24 minutes.

Dallas 103, Wizards 94: The Wizards controlled the first half of this game and led by as many as 14 at one point, and it looked like Dallas could lose their seventh in a row. But Darren Collison sparked a 22-6 third quarter run for the Mavericks that gave them the lead and Dallas never looked back. Vince Carter led Dallas with 23 points, 10 of them in the fourth quarter. Dirk Nowitzki looked better, shooting 5-of-7 from the field as he plays himself back into shape. If Wizards fans are looking for a bright spot, Bradley Beal had a career-high 22 points.

Pistons 103, Kings 97: Detroit was in control of this game from the second quarter on until a 20-5 run by Sacramento in the fourth — fueled by Jimmer Fredette who had 13 in the quarter — made it close down the stretch. It was Austin Daye who knocked down the game-clinching three for Detroit. Greg Monroe had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Pistons, who now have a three-game winning streak. Brandon Knight added 20. For the Kings DeMarcus Cousins had 21 points and 14 rebounds, but Sacramento fell to 1-13 on the road this season.