• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Curry posts career-best performance as Knicks hold off Bucks

Apr 8, 2007 - 6:27 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Eddy Curry showed it all against the Milwaukee Bucks - even some range.

Curry scored a career-high 43 points, including an improbable game-tying 3-pointer as time expired in regulation, sending the New York Knicks to a 118-113 victory over the Bucks.

Nate Robinson scored a season-high 34 points for the Knicks (32-44), who remained three games behind Orlando (35-41) with six left for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Magic routed Memphis, 116-89, earlier Saturday.

"We've been on a four-game losing streak, and each game that we lost we were close," Robinson said. "We were right there. To come in here and get a win tonight is definitely big. It boosts our confidence. Hopefully, we can win some more ballgames and get a playoff berth."

The Knicks outscored the Bucks, 16-11, in the extra period to secure the victory.

Entering Saturday's contest, New York had lost 11 of its last 14 games, including two straight demoralizing home defeats to Philadelphia and Minnesota by a combined seven points.

"You've got to take these games one game at a time," Robinson said. "We finally got a win, and it feels good. We need to get back on the winning side of the ball, that's what we're aiming for. Each game, we've been playing so hard but we've been coming up short."

It looked as if it would be more of the same for the Knicks thanks to Ruben Patterson, who banked in a 3-pointer with nine-tenths of a second left in regulation to give the Bucks a 102-99 lead.

"The shot clock was going down, and I had a good look," Patterson said. "It went off the glass, and I made it, but in the end it didn't matter because Curry made a three to go into overtime."

After a timeout, rookie Mardy Collins found Curry on the right wing in front of New York's bench, and he dropped in a high-arching shot from the arc over Milwaukee 6-11 center Dan Gadzuric.

"It felt good leaving my hands," Curry said. "Gadzuric challenged the shot, so I couldn't really see the ball, so I stepped to the side. I couldn't believe it. I just had confidence. Things have been going so bad for this team, the shot had to go in."

Remarkably, Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said the miracle 3-pointer was planned.

"It was designed for Eddy. I didn't think they'd guard him," Thomas said. "I've been telling him the whole season that I'd design a play for him to shoot a three and win the game for us. We took a timeout, and I asked him if he was ready to make the shot because now's the time. He said, 'Yeah,' and we drew it up and he knocked it down."

It was the first 3-pointer of the season - and second career - for Curry, who shot 17-of-20 from the field and grabbed 13 rebounds.

"We practice with him taking threes, and our bigs moving out to the perimeter," Thomas said. "(The bigs) thought I was crazy when I told them they'd have to hit a shot to win a game for us. But we practice it, and it's a shot I thought he could make."

Patterson netted 27 points for the Bucks, who have lost eight of their last nine games. The versatile forward also tried to slow down Curry for most of the night.

"I was down there trying to bang with big Curry and doing what I could do," Curry said. "He is heavy. They were getting to the basket. They're a long team, even though they're not a great shooting team, they were getting a lot of offensive rebounds. It's a tough loss."