After sleepy start, Carmelo, Knicks defense wake up to beat Hornets

Like you, the New York Knicks were feeling a little lazy on Sunday morning. Sleeping in, needing a little coffee to get going.

Except they had some work to do — the New Orleans Hornets were at Madison Square Garden for a noon tipoff game. And after three straight losses the Knicks looked at this game as a chance to get back in a groove.

The first quarter the Knicks kept hitting the snooze bar but in the second quarter Carmelo Anthony (who finished with 27 points) and the Knicks defense woke up, the result ultimately being a 100-87 Knicks win.

Maybe it wasn’t just woke up, maybe it was getting something to eat — Carmelo Anthony said he had been on a fast the past 15 days. Mid-season the professional athlete decided not to eat. Think that might explain the slow starts?

The other guy that woke up — Mike Woodson. For the previous three games he had started Marcus Camby or Kurt Thomas, which had basically moved Carmelo back to the small forward rather than the power forward. They lost. Sunday Chris Copeland started and was the three, Carmelo was back at the four and… what do you know? What worked at the start of the season continued to work. Shocking.

One final thing that mattered was the Knicks got back to playing some defense… eventually. The Hornets shot 40.2 percent for the game and had an offensive rating of just 90.2 points per 100 possessions (they had averaged 102.2 the five previous games). That’s the kind of win the Knicks needed.

But the first quarter of the game looked like everything that had gone wrong with the Knicks recently. The Hornets led most of the way early with Eric Gordon looking strong, working off the ball and with it, and scoring 12 first quarter points (he was 1-of-5 from three, that part of his game has not quite come back yet).

It could have been a lot worse for Knicks, the Hornets missed a lot of open looks. New york hung close thanks to Copeland, who had 11 first half points.

Then Anthony, who had started the game shooting 1-of-10, finished the half 6-of-7 to push the Knicks into the lead with 18 second quarter points. That was more than the Hornets scored in the quarter, just 12, as they shot 22.2 percent for the 12 minutes. The Knicks were more aggressive in the second quarter, not coincidentally when Austin Rivers entered the game for the Hornets. He is struggling, had a couple turnovers and the Knicks were on a roll

In the second half the Knicks pulled away to win comfortably. Amare Stoudemire probably had his best game since his return — 12 points and three rebounds in 23 minutes, plus he was attacking and getting to the line.

For the Hornets, they look better than they did early in the season. Anthony Davis shows flashes of the athleticism and length that made him the No. 1 overall pick, he’s starting to figure it out. Gordon had 22 and is finding his grove, and you are starting to see some flow to their game.

They were just not the better team Sunday. Once the Knicks woke up.