always be best known as a dunker, especially if he becomes the first
three-time champion of the slam dunk contest.
He's much more than just a high flyer, though.
"I'm an all-around player," Robinson said.
Robinson scored 27 points Monday to
lead the New York Knicks to a 99-91 victory and a split of a
home-and-home series with the Detroit Pistons.
Chosen earlier in the day to defend
his slam dunk title at All-Star weekend, Robinson made five 3-pointers,
one during a 7-0 spurt that started the fourth quarter and gave the
Knicks the lead for good.
"My teammates and my coach told me
that I had to be aggressive, that's just who I am," Robinson said.
"They said in the last couple of games I hadn't been that aggressive."
Fellow reserve Al Harrington and
Wilson Chandler each added 17 points as the Knicks bounced back from
consecutive losses, including Saturday's 94-90 defeat in Detroit, and
improved to 18-6 on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Rodney Stuckey scored 22 for the
shorthanded Pistons, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.
They led after three quarters with a gutty effort but simply didn't
have enough firepower with four of their top six scorers out.
Already missing Ben Gordon (strained
right groin), Tayshaun Prince (sore left knee) and Will Bynum (sprained
left ankle), the Pistons were even further weakened when Richard
Hamilton came down with an upset stomach.
Detroit hung around into the fourth
quarter, but Stuckey appeared to run out of gas, scoring his only two
points of the period in the final minute.
"Listen, I am very proud of my guys.
But I thought as hard as we fought, we come back and take the lead,
you've got to show poise in that situation," Detroit coach John Kuester
said. "I thought we did a great job in the third quarter. We had to go
to our bench. We needed our bench to come through in that situation and
it didn't happen."
Ben Wallace scored a season-high 16
points and grabbed 14 rebounds, and Austin Daye and Charlie Villanueva
also had 16 points for the Pistons.
Robinson did most of his damage in
his 13-point second quarter from the perimeter, though he thrilled the
crowd late in the period with a dunk off an alley-oop pass from Chris
Duhon for a 12-point lead. The Knicks led 57-43 at the half.
Robinson was benched for 14 games
last month before coach Mike D'Antoni returned him to the rotation,
needing the guard's energy off the bench especially now with Duhon
struggling.
"He gives us something that we need
and that's athleticism," D'Antoni said. "Again, you have to have
everything else, the defense and sound play, but he does give us
something that we need. I thought he played well."
Detroit turned it around by holding
the Knicks to 11 points in the third, their worst quarter of the
season, and led 70-68 going to the final period.
The Pistons were down only one with
10 minutes left before Harrington, Danilo Gallinari and Robinson made
3-pointers in a 13-4 spurt that gave the Knicks an 88-78 lead, and they
held on from there.
"It's tough. Rip, B.G., Tay, Chris
Wilcox couldn't go. We were short-handed but we put on a fight,"
Villanueva said. "There's a game of spurts you know. They made their
run. We made our run. Just didn't get the stops where it really
mattered the most, down in the fourth quarter, down the stretch."
Gallinari finished with 16 points
and David Lee had 11 points and 15 rebounds for New York. The Knicks
missed their first six shots in falling behind 7-0, made five of their
next six to grab the lead, and it was tied at 23 after one.
The Knicks improved to 17-24 at the
halfway point of their schedule, the same record they had last season
before finishing 32-50.
Notes
Eddy Curry is expected to
miss about six weeks after knee surgery, the latest setback for the
injury-plagued Knicks center. The team said he would have an
arthroscopic procedure on Monday to remove loose cartilage in his left
knee and begin rehabilitation within a week. Curry has played only
seven games this season. … Robinson will compete against Gerald
Wallace, Shannon Brown, and either DeMar DeRozan or Eric Gordon on Feb.
13 in Dallas. … Stuckey came in averaging 21.9 points when Hamilton
and Gordon are out.