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76ers easily roll to another home win

Feb 21, 2008 - 4:38 AM By Michael Luongo PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) - The Philadelphia 76ers responded from a disappointing loss with a strong first-quarter effort that sparked a 124-84 rout of the New York Knicks.

Philadelphia won five straight, all at home, heading into the All State break but started the stretch run with a lost at Minnesota on Tuesday.

Willie Green scored 21 points, rookie Thaddeus Young scored 20 and Andre Iguodala added 19 for the Sixers, who won for the sixth straight time on their home court.

"The guys shot the ball well," Iguodala said. "Willie Green gave us a nice start on the offensive end and defensively, we played pretty well making them take outside shots."

The Sixers jumped out to a 37-17 lead after the first quarter, setting a season high for points in a quarter as they shot 68 percent from the field and scored 15 points on 10 Knicks turnovers. For the game, New York surrendered 30 points on 25 turnovers.

"We couldn't make a pass from A to B," Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said. "When we take care of the basketball, we're a pretty competitive team. But when you have 25 turnovers and they score 30 points off of your turnovers, that's the game."

Philadelphia scored 25 points in the paint in the first and also set season-high mark for steals in a quarter with nine.

"Tonight was a great bounce-back game," Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said. "Getting up and down the floor, getting our hands on steals for open court plays, I thought that our energy was great and the effort was something that we were focused on."

Down by one, Green scored eight points with a pair of 3-pointers and a pair of free throws in a 10-0 run that gave the Sixers a 16-7 lead with 7:58 to go in the first.

Green later converted a three-point play that pushed the Philadelphia lead to 25-12. Philadelphia opened the second quarter with an 16-4 run taking a 24-point lead on a Rodney Carney jumper that gave the Sixers a 48-24 lead with 8:49 to go in the half.

"I just wanted to be aggressive," Green said. "I got to the arena early and just started to think about the game, especially coming off loss that we had the night before. These are the type the games you want to win when going on the road vs. Orlando and Miami."

The Sixers closed the scoring with a pair of free throws from Lou Williams that made it 72-36 at the half. The 72 points set a Wachovia Center record for points in a half.

The Sixers got baskets from Miller and Reggie Evans in the opening minutes of the third quarter to give Philadelphia a 76-36 with 11:58 to go. They got a pair of free throws from Samuel Dalembert and Andre Iguodala to push the Sixers lead to 98-52 with 1:18 to go and led 102-57 after three.

"We talked about it at the half that it was 0-0," Iguodala said. "You've got to win the third quarter. If you win that third quarter, they might lay down. Once we got it, we tried to finish it in the fourth,"

"They tried to come back in the third, but our defense was clicking on all cylinders tonight," Green said. "It was just one of those nights. The ball didn't bounce their way and it bounced ours. We just went out and played a real good game."

Gordon Giricek opened the fourth with a three that gave the Sixers a 105-57 lead and they cruised to their third win in four meetings with the Knicks this season.