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Crawford, Randolph lead Knicks past Maccabi Tel Avi

Oct 12, 2007 - 1:46 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Vonteego Cummings declared that Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv made their long flight to beat the New York Knicks. For one quarter, he was correct.

After a sluggish start, the Knicks recorded a 112-85 preseason victory over Maccabi in a charity game Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.

The first game between the Knicks and Israel's premier professional team benefited Migdal Ohr, the largest children's charity in Israel. It also came in front of many fans who were not rooting for the Knicks.

While Maccabi has several Israeli players, it also has a few former NBA players, including Cummings, who appeared in 199 games with the Golden State Warriors and Philadelphia 76ers from 1999-2002. Since then he has bounced around Europe, and before Maccabi left Tel Aviv, Cummings told an Israeli newspaper that his team would win.

For 12 minutes he was correct as the Knicks missed their first eight shots and Cummings scored 11 points, allowing Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv to grab a 25-20 lead.

The lead lasted until the early minutes of the second quarter when the Knicks began gaining control as new acquisition Zach Randolph and starting guards Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford helped New York take a 53-43 lead at halftime.

A bulked-up Crawford led the Knicks with 18 points, including the first eight of the second half. That turned a 10-point game into a rout as New York cruised the rest of the way and took an 83-67 lead through three quarters and scored the first 10 points of the fourth.

Randolph did not have a chance to see how he meshes with center Eddy Curry, who sat out with a right shoulder injury. He finished in a variety of ways and scored 15 points.

David Lee added 15 and Marbury chipped in 13 for the Knicks, who shot 53 percent (41-of-78) and have won their first two exhibition games

Cummings scored 14 of his 21 points in the first half. Former Chicago Bull Marcus Fizer added 18 points and 12 rebounds for Maccabi, which shot 42 percent (30-of-72).