Philadelphia, PA – Jrue Holiday justified his recent selection to the Eastern Conference All-Star team with a career-high night, leading the Philadelphia 76ers to a 97-80 rout of the New York Knicks at Wells Fargo Center.
Shaking off a 3-for-12, nine-point performance in Tuesday's loss at Milwaukee, Holiday racked up a personal-best 35 points along with six assists to enable the 76ers to avenge a pair of double-digit losses to the Atlantic Division- leading Knicks earlier in the season.
Evan Turner and Nick Young added 20 points each to help Philadelphia win for only the third time in its last 11 outings.
Carmelo Anthony paced the Knicks with 25 points, but went just 9-of-28 from the floor, and New York shot a poor 34.6 percent as a team while never leading at any stage.
"We didn't come to compete tonight and that was disappointing," Knicks head coach Mike Woodson said.
Amare Stoudemire did make 8-of-13 field goal attempts in turning in a season- best 20-point effort off the bench during the setback.
Holiday was a factor right from the start, with the first-time All-Star putting up eight points in the game's first 3 1/2 minutes to swiftly stake the 76ers to a 12-2 lead. The Knicks quickly got back in it with a 7-0 spurt, and trailed by just two at 16-14 late in the first quarter before Philadelphia regained control.
The Sixers responded with an 8-0 flurry, highlighted by Young converting a rare 4-point play, to reclaim a double-digit advantage in the final minute of the opening period.
"It's been a while since we came out and took care of business early," Holiday said. "We made them work."
New York got to within four points on two separate occasions in the second quarter, but Philadelphia shot a sharp 63.2 percent for the frame in building a comfortable 53-41 lead at the break. Turner netted 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting for the stanza, and finished it off with a rousing alley-oop dunk off a Young feed with 52.9 seconds left.
The Sixers continued to pour it on in the third quarter, outscoring New York 31-17 for the session as the Knicks remained in a shooting slump. Young notched 14 of his points during that time frame, and New York went a miserable 5-of-22 from the field while falling behind by as many as 29 points after Holiday's pullup at the 1:28 mark made the score 82-53.
The Knicks trailed 84-58 heading into the fourth quarter and never got closer than the final margin.
Game Notes
76ers head coach Doug Collins left the game in the third quarter to be treated for a sinus infection and blocked nasal passage, with assistant Michael Curry running the team for the remainder of the contest ... Holiday's previous career high was 33 points, mostly recently set in a win over Toronto on Jan. 18, and he's now averaging 25.2 points and 10.0 assists over his last six games ... Knicks point guard Raymond Felton returned from a 12-game absence caused by a broken right pinkie finger he suffered on Christmas Day, but had just eight points on 2-of-8 shooting in 29 minutes ... Sixers guard Jason Richardson missed a third straight contest due to inflammation in his left knee ... New York missed on 12 consecutive field goal attempts over a stretch of over seven minutes in the third quarter ... The Sixers kicked off a season-long eight-game homestand with the win.
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