Hornets Extra: Knicks 96, Hornets 93

93

96

The final few seconds of last night's match-up between the Charlotte Hornets and the New York Knicks turned out to be very interesting, as the turning point of the game was the 5-second rule in which Charlotte didn't inbound the ball to avoid the warning, and that would eventually open the door for the Knicks to maintain their lead and to escape out of Madison Square Garden with a 96-93 win to go to 2-1 on the year, while Charlotte drops to 1-2.

Of course, everyone knows that when you face the Knicks, you have to go through Carmelo Anthony, the man that was in the center of attention last season, when his 61-point performance burned the then-Bobcats at Madison Square Garden, and last night, he eclipsed the 20,000 point plateau, while leading the way for New York with a game-high 28 point outing, as first-year coach Derek Fisher was impressed with his team's effort last night. "Their effort in trying to do what we're asking them to do is very high. Even though we're making mistakes, we are making it hard for teams to score in certain situations." Fisher said.

New York would finish the night shooting an even 50% from the field, as Anthony was joined in the victorious effort by Amar'e Stoudemire off the bench, as he went 7-of-13 from the field to finish with 17 points to go along with his 10 rebounds, and Iman Shumpert rounded out the list of double-figure scorers for the Knicks with 15 points on the night.

As for the Hornets in the loss, they were led in scoring by "Big Al" Jefferson and his 21 point outing, while Gary Neal came off the bench to add in 17 points with Kemba Walker scoring 16 and Lance Stephenson finally got into double figures for the first time in a Hornets uniform with 14 points, as the Hornets teamwise, shot 47.1% from the field, while out-rebounding the Knicks by a 38-35 margin.

Next up for the Hornets, a match-up with Anthony Davis and the Pelicans on Tuesday night at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans for a 8:00 tip-off, before heading back home to take on Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and the Miami Heat at Time Warner Cable Arena at 7:00 p.m. this Wednesday.