NEW YORK - Rookie Renaldo Balkman scored a season-high 18 points, and the New York Knicks used their best defensive performance of the season to beat the Washington Wizards 102-82 Wednesday night.

Quentin Richardson made five 3-pointers and added 17 points and Stephon Marbury scored 16 for the Knicks, who won for the first time this season at Madison Square Garden and snapped a three-game losing streak.

They did it in surprising fashion, smothering the league's highest-scoring team with the kind of defensive effort that had been missing all season. New York was allowing 105.6 points, second worst in the league, and hadn't held an opponent below 100 in any of its first eight games.

But the Knicks shut down Gilbert Arenas and held the Wizards to 31.5 percent shooting while leading nearly all the way.

David Lee had 10 points and 15 rebounds ¡ª 10 in the fourth quarter ¡ª while teaming with Balkman and Nate Robinson to spark a strong bench effort that allowed the Knicks to simply outwork the Wizards.

Arenas finished with 22 points but was only 5-of-19 from the floor. Antawn Jamison added 20 and Caron Butler scored 18 on 4-of-11 shooting.

The game was tied at 27 early in the second quarter when Robinson scored eight points in 1:38 as the Knicks opened a six-point advantage. New York led the remainder of the half, with the lead growing to nine when Steve Francis found Marbury underneath for a layup with 36 seconds remaining.

Washington entered averaging a league-best 107.8 points per game, but shot only 36 percent in the first half and trailed 50-43.

The Knicks pushed the lead to 11 points late in the third quarter as Balkman scored seven points in the final 1:54. They would have led by more if they hadn't been plagued by fouls in the period. Washington was only 3-of-9 from the floor, but made 20 of 23 free throws and headed to the fourth down 77-69.

Washington never got close in the fourth, with coach Eddie Jordan sending Arenas and Jamison to the bench after Marbury's 3-pointer made it 97-81 with a little more than 3 minutes left. Butler stayed on the floor ¡ª and had a shot blocked by Balkman in the closing seconds.