BRIAN MAHONEY, AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Carmelo Anthony had 26 points and nine rebounds, and the New York Knicks bounced back from their first loss of the season, beating the Indiana Pacers 88-76 on Sunday.
JR Smith added 13 points and Raymond Felton had 11 for the Knicks in their only home game in a span of seven games. After falling 105-95 at Memphis on Friday, the Knicks (7-1) go right back on the road to start another three-game trip Tuesday in New Orleans.
In a game that was ugly even without Jason Kidd's bad headband style, neither team shot 40 percent, but the Knicks built a big early lead, went up by as much as 20 and were never challenged.
Paul George scored 20 points for the Pacers, who remained inept offensively as they played without leading scorer Danny Granger. They hoped they had broken out with an impressive 103-point performance against Dallas on Friday, but managed only 30 first-half points.
David West added 14 points in Indiana's sixth straight road loss.
The Pacers came in allowing an NBA-low 90.3 points per game but often wasting that without Granger, who is expected to miss three months with a sore left knee. They were averaging 87.8 points, 28th in the league, but were nowhere near that against a Knicks team that's also good defensively.
The Knicks led 21-18 after one behind 12 points from Anthony, whose 5-of-9 shooting looked even more impressive next to the Pacers' 7 of 22 or the 3 of 15 the rest of his teammates combined to hit. Kidd played only 3 minutes before he was hit in the head and bloodied while attempting a 3-pointer. He put a headband over the wound so he could shoot the free throws, wearing it in a lopsided manner that was angled more like a bonnet, even laughing himself at how ugly it looked.
He made the shots, then went to the back to get seven stitches.
New York then held Indiana to 3-of-16 shooting (19 percent) and 12 points in the second. The Knicks led by as much as 12 in the period when Tyson Chandler threw down a lob pass from Felton and it was 41-30 at the break.
Kidd had a lane open for him in the third but botched the layup, adjusting the headband after the miss. The Pacers later had consecutive possessions with their own blown layup followed by an airball on a jumper.
Still, the Pacers made 10 of 14 shots in the third and trimmed what had been a 16-point deficit to nine late in the period. But Rasheed Wallace made a 3-pointer to end the third-quarter scoring, then opened the fourth with a basket and a dunk before Smith's jumper restored the 16-point advantage at 74-58 two minutes into the fourth.
Notes: Knicks coach Mike Woodson said the Knicks planned to send the NBA video of the flagrant foul that was assessed on Smith on Friday in hopes of getting it rescinded. Woodson said he "didn't think there was much there." Woodson was then hit with a technical foul 90 seconds into Sunday's game. ... Donnie Walsh, who has rejoined the Pacers, his longtime franchise, after spending three years as Knicks president from 2008-11, said the Knicks have put themselves in good position after the rebuilding process that he started. "I've already said they're a contending team, but to go any further you've got to do it. You can't talk about it, you've got to do it, and that's kind of where all the teams are," he said before the game.
