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NEW YORK - After playing poorly in the first half, the New York Knicks went with a smaller lineup and came up with their biggest win of the season.
A buzzer-beating 3-pointer by 5-foot-9 Nate Robinson lifted the Knicks to a 105-102 overtime victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday.
Stephon Marbury scored a season-high 33 points and rookie Channing Frye added 21 points and 11 rebounds for New York, which rallied from a 16-point deficit in the third quarter and then squandered a nine-point lead in the fourth.
“We got really aggressive, especially when we went small,” Knicks coach Larry Brown said. “We got loose balls, we didn’t turn the ball over and we got second shots. We really hurt them on the boards.”
Allen Iverson had 40 points and 10 assists, and Chris Webber scored 19 points for Philadelphia, which has lost four of five. Webber tipped in Iverson’s miss with .6 seconds left to send the game into overtime.
The 76ers, who trailed by six in overtime, tied it on Iverson’s 3-pointer with 6.2 seconds remaining. The Knicks pushed the ball up the court and Robinson took a 23-foot jumper from the right side just before the buzzer.
“I just knew if I get it up high enough I would have a good chance of making it,” Robinson said. “So I just shot it hard and let it go.”
“The sky’s the limit for him,” Iverson said. “He’s a tough guard. He’s got the best coach in the world on his side.”
New York, outplayed in the first half, outhustled and outworked the 76ers for a key 16½-minute stretch in the second half.
After Kyle Korver’s 3-pointer pushed Philadelphia’s lead to 63-47 a minute into the third quarter, New York went on an 18-2 run to tie the game at 65 on Marbury’s short jumper with 3:27 remaining in the period.
“At halftime, coach got on us because he felt like we had been playing very sloppy,” Knicks rookie Channing Frye said. “We got out in the second half and took care of the ball, played some defense and made some shots.”
Iverson’s 20-footer briefly regained the lead for the Sixers before Marbury hit a 3-pointer to give New York its first lead of the game. Marbury’s 22-footer increased the Knicks’ lead to 70-67 with 1:53 left in the quarter.
“They made adjustments,” Webber said. “They just played better than we did in the second half. But there’s no excuse for a (16-point) lead going down like that. It hurts when you play that well together in the first half, and in the second half you don’t do it.”
New York pushed its lead to 83-74 on Robinson’s 3-pointer with more than 5 minutes left in the game. However, Iverson scored 10 points during a 13-4 run to tie the game at 87 with 1:42 left.
The Knicks regained the lead 18 seconds later on a goaltending call on Samuel Dalembert, and Jamal Crawford’s turnaround jumper with 47 seconds left gave New York an 91-88 lead.
Webber’s hook shot 12 seconds later made it a one-point game, before Marbury followed with a driving layup to make it 93-90 with 19.9 seconds remaining.
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“They played better offensively and we did a bad job guarding,” Iverson said. “We had a chance to put them away but we have been going through this the last couple of games, having leads and giving them up.”
Andre Iguodala’s two free throws pulled Philadelphia within 93-92 with 10.8 seconds left.
Crawford made one free throw with 8.7 seconds left, and Webber’s tip sent the game to overtime.
Notes: Frye made his first NBA start. ... Penny Hardaway, Matt Barnes, and Jerome James were inactive for the Knicks. ... New York, which had lost three of its previous four, won its second straight at home. ... Dalembert made his season debut after missing the first 11 games with an injured right quadriceps. ... Jamal Mashburn, Louis Williams and Den Gai were inactive for the Sixers. ... Anthony Fedorov, a finalist from last season’s “American Idol,” sang the national anthem before the game. ... Celebrities in attendance included former tennis star John McEnroe, and actors Edward Norton, Rosario Dawson, Chazz Palminteri and Steve Schirripa.
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