Johnson put Knicks in a position to win
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Comedians need a straight man, leading men need
a supporting cast, and basketball stars need a player who sets the
stage for the late heroics.
Latrell Sprewell had Larry Johnson on Wednesday night.
|  | | The Knicks' Larry Johnson plays tight defense against Toronto's Vince Carter. |
Sprewell scored 13 of the last 17 points to lift the New York
Knicks past the Toronto Raptors 84-83 for a 2-0 lead in their
first-round playoff series. But it was Johnson who put the hosts in
position to win, scoring eight straight points in the fourth
quarter to snap his teammates and the Madison Square Garden crowd
awake. He turned a Toronto runaway into a close contest.
"I think LJ getting off (got the team on track)," said
Sprewell, who finished with 25 points, including the winning jumper
with 7.9 seconds. "He's the guy that got us off and picked us
up."
With New York trailing 70-59 and a little more than 9:00
remaining, heading to Toronto with the series tied 1-1 was a real
possibility. Johnson did not appear a likely candidate for a key
role, with zero field goals and five personal fouls.
But Johnson hit two short jumpers, a hook shot inside and made
two free throws to make it 72-67 with 6:25 left.
"We were a little stagnated on offense, but I was on the bench
with foul trouble. Then we ran a couple of plays and I started
playing pretty good, so we stuck with it," Johnson said.
"The first one gets you feeling good about yourself, and you
definitely know we'll come back and run the same play. And you get
that one and then you're hot, so to speak."
Before fouling out, he added a slick pass to set up Sprewell's
3-pointer with 5:51 to go that cut the deficit to 73-70.
Johnson, who hit a key 3-pointer in the final minute of Sunday's
Game 1 victory, finished Wednesday with 11 points and five
rebounds. He picked up his sixth foul with 5:09 to go.
"He delivered us some offensive energy," Knicks coach Jeff Van
Gundy said. "With Larry you never have to worry about him being in
the right frame of mind. He fouled out with five minutes left, but
he had already done his job, getting us back into striking
distance."
Johnson had a down year, missing 11 games because of injury and
finishing the regular season with a career-low 10.7 scoring
average.
But his bursts of energy could be key to how far the Knicks,
Eastern Conference champions last year, go in the postseason.
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