Knicks edge Bucks, add cushion in No. 8 spot

Knicks edge Bucks, add cushion in No. 8 spot

Tannen Maury/EPA

Carmelo Anthony scores 32 points on 13 for 26 shooting to go along with his 10 boards vs. Bucks.

NY KNICKS 111, MILWAUKEE BUCKS 107

MILWAUKEE The Knicks did not nail down a playoff berth Wednesday night. They merely took one big step toward securing entry into the postseason for the second straight year.

Make that one giant step.

This, Mike Woodson said, is the game we had to have.It also wasnt pretty especially on the defensive end but when it mattered most, the Knicks with J.R. Smith emerging as the unlikeliest of heroes were smarter, tougher and more playoff worthy than the Milwaukee Bucks.

Im proud of my teammates, Tyson Chandler said after the Knicks rallied for a 111-107 victory. We knew this was a playoff-type game. I told my teammates this was a do-or-die game. Im proud of the way we responded.

The victory helped the Knicks (30-28) move two full games ahead of Milwaukee for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and prevented them from falling into an eighth-place tie and losing the season series tiebreaker. With eight games left on the schedule, starting with Fridays home date against Washington, the Knicks trail seventh-place Philadelphia by one game.

The way were winning some of these games, on the road, gut-check wins, coming down to the wire against good teams we have to beat gives us momentum coming down the stretch, Carmelo Anthony said. We did a great deed winning this game.

Anthony led the Knicks w ith 32 points but on the games biggest possession, it was Smith and not Anthony who delivered. The Knicks, who trailed by as many as eight in the fourth quarter, were behind by two after Luc Mbah a Moute rebounded Monta Ellis miss and hit a layup with 1:17 left.

Electing not to call timeout, Woodson instead ran a two-man game with Smith and Anthony, the two former teammates in Denver. With the Bucks covering Anthony the way Smiths body is covered with tattoos, Smith saw an opening and took it.

Thats why hes J.R. Smith, Anthony, laughing, said.

Smiths three-pointer with 1:04 remaining gave the Knicks the lead for good as Milwaukee, held to 8-for-25 shooting in the fourth, missed its last five shots. It was a bittersweet moment for Smith, whose last visit to Milwaukee resulted in the veteran guard being fined $ 25,000 by the NBA for posting a picture of a semi-nude woman to his Twitter account.

His second trip here wasnt goi ng much better. He was struggling to find his shot and twice fouled Mike Dunleavy as the Bucks forward was shooting a three-pointer.

My individual defense was terrible, Smith says.

But with Baron Davis limited, Woodson again stuck with a backcourt of Smith and Iman Shumpert, the latter of whom made things difficult for Ellis in the fourth quarter. Woodsons faith in Smith was rewarded as the guard scored eight points in the final period and pressured Brandon Jennings into a turnover. The Milwaukee guard had casually crossed midcourt and was about to call timeout when Smith pounced on him.

I need J.R., Woodson said. Im a big believer in J.R. I told him that after the game. Im in his corner and Im going to do everything I can to see that hes successful. Hes a talent and he showed it at the end of the game.

Chandler contributed with 19 points and 11 rebounds while Milwaukee product Steve Novak scored 10, including the game-tyin g three with five minutes left. Shumpert played the entire second half, scored 19 points and held Ellis, who finished with 35, to six points in the fourth. Jennings and Dunleavy went 1-for-5 and 0-for-6, respectively, in the fourth.

We had a total team effort, Woodson said. They grinded and kept grinding until they came out of here with a W.