NEW YORK -- Sensing a fellow shooter had become gun shy, Kobe Bryant had a message for Carmelo Anthony last summer. Ignore the critics, he said. Stop worrying about fitting in and get back to a scorers mentality. "You have to do what you do best," Bryant told him. Thats what Anthony did in a spectacular first quarter Thursday night, and by the time he was done Bryant and the struggling Los Angeles Lakers had no hope of ending their slump. Anthony scored 22 of his 30 points in the period, and the New York Knicks held on after he departed with a sprained left ankle to beat the Lakers 116-107 in coach Mike DAntonis return to Madison Square Garden. "I was zoned in. I was locked in," Anthony said. "Tonight was one of those games where I had that feeling. I wanted to get it going and I had that feeling going early in the game. My teammates were feeding off of that." Firing in 3-pointers and moving the ball to open shooters, things they often struggled to do under DAntoni, the Knicks won for the eighth time in nine games and improved to 9-0 at home for the first time since the 1992-93 season. "I wanted to beat them. I wanted to beat the Lakers, especially protecting our home court," Anthony said. "It had nothing to do with Mike. I wanted to protect our home court and win the basketball game." Meanwhile, things are starting as poorly for DAntoni in Los Angeles as they ended in New York. The Lakers, still without Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, were never really in the game while losing their fourth straight and falling to 9-14. Nash has started running and the Lakers know things will get better once hes back, but that doesnt help right now. "At this point I wish we had the Washington Generals on our schedule," Bryant said. Theyre playing Washington on Friday, but its the Wizards. Raymond Felton scored 19 points, and Tyson Chandler and J.R. Smith added 18 apiece for the Knicks. Bryant had 31 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers. Metta World Peace finished with 23 points and Dwight Howard had 20. The Lakers did cut what was a 26-point deficit to 113-107 when World Peace converted a three-point play with 1:27 remaining, but the Knicks took more than a minute off the clock while twice grabbing offensive rebounds on the next possession before Chandler made a free throw with 18 seconds to play. Anthony, playing at an MVP level after he struggled last season under DAntoni, made his first three 3-pointers, nearly reaching his NBA-leading average of 9.7 points per first quarter before 2 1/2 minutes were even gone. Bryant tried to keep pace but the Knicks couldnt be stopped, making 17 of 23 shots (74 per cent) and building a 41-27 advantage. "Hes fun to watch when hes playing like that," Chandler said. "Hes pretty much unstoppable when hes playing that way." Anthony finished two shy of the franchise record for points in a quarter, held by Willis Reed and Allan Houston. And he was easily on pace to pass Bryants building record of 61 points, though he didnt even get halfway there after playing just 5 minutes in the second half. Anthony said his ankle felt sore and he didnt know if he would be available Saturday against Cleveland. When it was over, DAntoni shook hands with Mike Woodson, who replaced him on the New York bench, and a couple of Knicks players before walking off after another rocky night with the Lakers. Hes often been considered an offensive genius whose teams are poor defensively, but right now the Lakers dont really look good on either end. The Knicks made 22 of their first 30 shots overall and started 8 of 10 behind the arc. Even when the Lakers tried to defend, it didnt work. Howard batted the ball away from Rasheed Wallace in the post, so Wallace simply retrieved it in the corner, buried a 3-pointer, and the lead ballooned to 58-32. "We are having a re-occurring theme that the first quarter is just not good, and then the first half is not great and in the second half we seem to turn it on, and we need to solve that problem real quick," DAntoni said. It was 68-49 at the break, but the Knicks lost some of their flow when Anthony went to the locker room with 6:41 left in the third quarter and a 17-point lead. He had landed awkwardly after being fouled by Howard on a drive to the basket, and though he was able to stay in to shoot the free throws, Anthony was removed at the next whistle. DAntoni was booed loudly during pregame introductions, Knicks fans who appreciated the rugged defensive teams of the 1990s never truly embracing his offence-first style. DAntoni said he enjoyed his time in New York and said earlier Thursday the Knicks, who lead the NBA in 3-pointers per game and fewest turnovers, were playing the way hed like his team to play. Sure enough, they made 12 3-pointers, right at their average, and turned it over just six times. DAntoni couldnt get the Knicks offence going last season and tensions between he and Anthony seemed strained, though both denied it, when he resigned in March with the team threatening to fall out of the playoff race. The Knicks went 18-6 down the stretch under Woodson, who said he has kept aspects of DAntonis system while adding in some wrinkles of his own. The result is a team that has shot to the top of the Eastern Conference with a 17-5 record. NOTES: The Knicks opened a six-game homestand. They dont play on the road again until they visit the Lakers on Christmas. ... New York has won the last two meetings after dropping nine in a row. ... DAntoni said he spent his off day in town visiting with his wife and son, who remained in New York after he took the Lakers job last month. beats by dre . Their strategy played right into the Canadians hands. Canada scored a pair of power-play goals and beat the Czechs 5-2 Friday to advance to a fifth straight tournament final. "We like chippy," Canadian coach Todd Gill said. beats by dre cheap . -- Not long after Arizona knocked off Florida for its biggest win of the season, coach Sean Miller told his team not to get too high, to keep their focus. [url=http://cambridgediversity.org/beats-by-dre-uk.html]http://cambridgediversit... . Joining TSN Radio 1050s Cybulski & Company on the same day the league announced the cancellation of all games scheduled through Jan. 14, Fehr expressed hope that momentum towards a new deal could continue as the traditionally slow business period of the holidays arrives.SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Padres have exercised the 2014 and 2015 option years in manager Bud Blacks contract. The club previously had extended Blacks contract through 2013. Black replaced Bruce Bochy as manager before the 2007 season. He is 464-509 ((.dddddddddddd477) in six seasons, including a 90-72 mark in 2010. Black won the NL Manager of the Year Award that season. Also Monday, the Padres agreed with outfielder Kyle Blanks on a $605,000, one-year deal to avoid arbitration. ' ' '