There is a magic cure, and its name is Carmelo

NEW YORK - Carmelo Anthony came back and the New York Knicks' offensive woes went away.

Anthony scored 25 points in his return to the lineup, Landry Fields added 16 of his 18 in a flawless first half, and the Knicks snapped a three-game losing streak with a 113-86 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night.

Tyson Chandler had 17 points and Amare Stoudemire 15 for the Knicks, whose slumbering offense awoke in their second victory in 11 games. They shot 60 percent from the field - amazingly the first time they bettered 50 percent all season - and fell a point short of matching their highest scoring effort.

"A lot of that is Melo," Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said. "You could see he was well, he looked good and we play a lot off him and he draws a lot of attention, makes it easy for everybody else, kind of puts everybody else back in their roles that they do. And we struggled with him out or with him hurt."

Anthony had missed two straight games because of injuries to his ankle, wrist and thumb, finally shutting it down after shooting 31.7 percent in six games since he was hurt on Jan 12 at Memphis. But he drove easily and shot well after deciding shortly before the game he was ready to go, going 9 of 14 from the field and handing out six assists.

"My legs felt great out there tonight," Anthony said. "I felt refreshed. Just taking these five, six days off that I did really helped me out big time. I could feel me having my explosiveness back. A lot of the things that I was doing prior to the Memphis game, it came back tonight."

Jonas Jerebko scored 15 points and Greg Monroe had 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Pistons (4-19), who lost their sixth straight and are struggling to even be competitive while playing without Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva and Will Bynum.

"We're not even putting ourselves in a position where these games are in doubt," Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. "We're all embarrassed that we're not doing better. We all have to raise our hands and figure out ways we can improve."

Associated Press

(China Daily 02/02/2012 page24)