Chris Huphreys – US Presswire
With only two players on the bench for the New York Knicks on the onset of their regular season finale with the Atlanta Hawks, many New York players were set to play very heavy minutes and be left vulnerable to injury. Pablo Prigioni was the first member of the shorthanded Knickerbocker roster to suffer as he went down with an apparent ankle injury in the first half of Wednesday’s game.
Chris Copeland appeared to hurt to his non-shooting shoulder in the second half but managed to finish the game with a career high 33 points, making him the first Knick rookie since Bill Cartwright in 1980 to have back to back games scoring 30 points or more. The efficient Copeland now finds himself first among rookies and 12th overall in the NBA in three point shooting percentage.
To give Knicks fans a little more of a scare, Iman Shumpert looked to have hurt his non-surgically repaired knee after throwing an alley-oop pass to James White. Luckily, Shumpert had only suffered a minor leg cramp and finished the game with an impressive 18 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists.
Wednesday’s finale also saw the Knick debuts of Quentin Richardson and Earl Barron. Richardson managed to nail his first shot from the field. However, that would prove to be his only made field goal as he went on to miss his next 11 attempts and look the most exhausted out of all the Knicks despite playing a team low amongst non-injured Knicks with 28 minutes. Barron, on the other hand, had a career-high 18 rebounds to go along with his 11 points. Not to get out of line with the theme of the game, Barron also appeared to injure himself, grabbing at the back of his leg as the final seconds ran off the clock and time expired.
As if that weren’t enough, one of the referees also went down with an apparent injury.
New York finishes their season at 54-28, their best mark since the 1996-97 season when they went 57-25, and won the Atlantic Division for the first time since 1994. Furthermore, their 13-game win streak is the 3rd longest in team history. Lastly, the Knicks set the NBA record for most three-point field goals made in a single season.
Up next, the Knicks face the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs on Saturday.
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