Tyreke Evans came back after missing 3 games from injury and the Kings finally managed to pull their first road win of this six game trip. But it wasn’t Evans that made the difference.
That honor goes to the incredible performance of Beno Udrih, who scored 29 points on 11-14 from the field, and also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals to push the Kings to victory. Udrih has been big all trip but hasn’t received enough help.
Tonight he got that help, especially defensively. The Knicks lead the league in points per game at 107.8, so keeping them to only 83 points was huge. The Knicks also shot a season low 31% from the field, with Amar’e Stoudemire only shooting 6-22.
A lot of credit for the defense has to be given to the anchor, Samuel Dalembert, who came up huge in the 4th quarter guarding Stoudemire. Dalembert had 6 blocks on the game, with 5 of them coming in the last quarter.
It was a sloppy game on both sides, with the Kings committing 22 turnovers and the Knicks 15. Carl Landry was the biggest culprit with 7 himself, mainly due to the Knicks forcing him out of his comfort zone and sending double teams. He still had a good game though, contributing 15 points and 9 rebounds in the winning effort.
The Kings now head to Detroit to take on the Pistons. I’m sure they’re looking to ride the momentum to another victory.