The New York Knicks really took it to the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night (Dec. 31), and in the process proved that the team has weapons other than Amare Stoudemire. Forced to play without the power forward, the Knicks still cruised to a nice 114-92 victory.

Every starter for the Knicks scored in double-figures against the Kings, including rookie Josh Harrelson going for 14 points and 12 rebounds in his first career start. The Knicks have a real asset in Harrelson, and it is clear that he could add a lot to the team this year. This is what I was talking about when I wrote about how the Knicks could benefit from having Stoudemire sit out a game.

Carmelo Anthony led the team in scoring with 23 points, but he struggled from the field (6-for-15). Anthony made up for it by going 11-for-13 from the free throw line, grabbing 7 rebounds and dishing out 5 assists. Down low, Tyson Chandler was an absolute beat, going 6-for-8 from the center position and hitting all 10 of his free throws. For a guy that took only 6 shots total in the first three games, this was a huge outing. Chandler’s 22 points were more than any Kings player had.

Helping with the additional scoring was Landry Fields with 21, Toney Douglas with 17 and Bill Walker with 11 points off the bench. The Knicks made 88.9 percent of their free throws, going 24-for-27 from the line to really put this game out of reach. It also didn’t hurt that the defense held the Kings to just 34.9 percent shooting from the field and just 27.3 percent from three-point range.

After losing two games on the West Coast to the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers, this was a great way to bounce back. The Knicks improved to 2-2 on the season and kept pace with the 2-2 Philadelphia 76ers in a tie for first place in the Atlantic division. For a team still trying to find itself, Knicks fans have to come away from this win with a big smile. The team got forced to find offensive weapons other than Stoudemire and passed that test will flying colors. If the team can keep this up when he returns, it could become tough for any of the Eastern Conference teams to stop them.

The next game for New York is on Monday, Jan. 2 against the Toronto Raptors in the first of several games at Madison Square Garden.

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Sources:

Full Knicks Schedule

New York Knicks Website

*Ryan Christopher DeVault is a fan of the New York Knicks that has followed the team since the days John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Anthony Mason instilled their defensive will on the rest of the league.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

It didn’t start out pretty, but the Portland Trail Blazers ended up beating the Sacramento Kings very easily on Tuesday night (Dec. 27). The Kings actually jumped out to a double-digit lead in the second quarter, only to see the Blazers speed up the tempo and tie up the game before the half. The speed that the Kings tried to play with ended up working against them, because it just played right into the hands of the veteran Trail Blazers.

This 101-79 win by the Blazers moved the team to 2-0 and kept pace with the undefeated Oklahoma City Thunder atop the Northwest division. It’s a battle that will likely last all season between the two teams, and it’s good to see that the Blazers have the talent to make comebacks against teams that are much younger. Wins against Philadelphia and Sacramento won’t gain the team a lot of respect around the league just yet, but it’s very important to play strong every night in this 66-game season.

Again the Blazers got led by forwards LaMarcus Aldridge and Gerald Wallace. Aldridge finished with 24 points on 10-for-15 shooting and added 8 rebounds and a steal. Wallace finished with 25 points on just 8-for-11 shooting and he had 8 rebounds, 5 assists and one block on the night. The pair is as good (if not better) than any other tandem of forwards in the NBA through the first two weeks of the season. It certainly could provide interesting games when the Blazers play the Miami Heat and New York Knicks later on the schedule.

Helping with the scoring was Nicolas Batum with 15 points, Wesley Matthews with 8 and Jamal Crawford with 6. The Blazers didn’t shoot well from the field (again) though, as the team went just 37-for-84 and a paltry 3-for-18 from three-point range. Those are numbers that could use some improvement, but that is likely to come from this new cast getting a few games under their belts. A really good sign from this game was that the Blazers won the battle of the boards again, out-rebounding Sacramento 44-42.

Next up on the schedule is another home game, this one against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday, Dec. 29. After that the Blazers hear out on the road to play the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, Jan. 1.

More From YCN :

Portland Takes Out Philadelphia

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Sources:

Blazers_Team_Stats

Blazers Full Schedule

Blazers Preseason Schedule

Blazers Team Page

Blazers Updated Roster

*Ryan is a Northwest bred sports fan that has been a Portland Trail Blazers fan for years. He doesn’t miss a game, and has high hopes that the Blazers can improve their roster during the offseason and come back even better in the 2011-12 NBA season.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Read More: 2011-2012 nba schedule, 2011-12 nba schedule, kings 2011 schedule, kings 2011-12 nba schedule, nba tv, nbatv, television schedule, nba schedule announcement, nba schedule 2011-2012, tnt, Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings

The 2011-2012 NBA schedule was released Tuesday afternoon in spite of the current lockout. The release date was bumped up three weeks in what might be an attempt by the league to get some kind of positive commentary for at least a day or two. The Sacramento Kings found out their final schedule and the 2011-2012 Kings schedule features a home opener versus the now Yao Ming-less Houston Rockets.

The Kings schedule features ten days in Northern California to open the season as they play four home games and a road game against the Golden State Warriors. The schedule includes one TNT game and five NBA TV games. I have a feeling this could be a fun team to watch on offense so hopefully the NBA will make adjustments to move them into a couple more nationally televised games.

The Kings will have several fairly rough road trips this season. They have a five-game road trip in mid December that includes trips to Portland, Orlando, Miami, Charlotte and the Clippers. They have a second five-game road trip in January with games at Philadelphia, Toronto, Boston, Washington, and New York. February includes a six-game road trip and nine of ten on the road into March. While the Kings are not expected to be championship contenders this year, that stretch of games will give them an idea of their development late into the season.

Head on over to Sactown Royalty to join the schedule discussion that is already in progress.