Knicks 108, Raptors 100

TORONTO — Forward Carmelo Anthony scored 30 points and the New York Knicks kept their playoff hopes alive with a 108-100 win over the Toronto Raptors on Friday.

Forward Amar’e Stoudemire added 24 points and 11 rebounds for the Knicks (34-45), who snapped a two-game losing streak.

Guard J.R. Smith added 15 points and guard/forward Iman Shumpert had 11 points before fouling out for the Knicks. Guard Raymond Felton chipped in with 12 points, including the final four points of the game on free throws.

Guard DeMar DeRozan led the Raptors with 26 points and guard Kyle Lowry scored 25. Center Jonas Valanciunas had 14 points and 21 rebounds and forward Terrence Ross added 13 points while forward John Salmons had 10 for the Raptors (46-33) who had their four-game winning streak ended.

The Raptors were looking for a win to clinch the second Atlantic Division title in franchise history. The other division win was 2006-07 when they won 47 games.

Shumpert scored the first four points of the fourth quarter as New York took a five-point lead. The lead was up to seven when Stoudemire made two free throws with 7:48 to play. The lead reached eight on Shumpert’s layup with just under six minutes to play. Stoudemire scored four straight points to put the Knicks into a 100-89 lead with 4:03 to play.

The Raptors whittled the lead to seven points with 2:03 to play on Lowry’s driving layup. The Raptors could not take advantage of a Knicks’ missed shot and missed a shot of their own. New York took over with 1:17 to play.

DeRozan hit two free throws with 36.8 seconds to play after Shumpert’s fifth foul to cut the lead to five points. Smith made a pair of free throws with 36.1 seconds and the Knicks led by seven points.

But Lowry scored and made the free throw on Shumpert’s sixth foul to cut the lead to four points with 31.5 seconds left. The Knicks got the lead back to six on two free throws by Smith. DeRozan countered with two foul shots with 22.8 seconds left, but Felton restored the six-point advantage by making his two free throws and added two more.

Ross and DeRozan made 3-pointers to open the third quarter and give Toronto an eight-point lead. But the Knicks quickly reduced the lead to three. Smith hit his second 3-pointer of the quarter to tie the game at 61. Anthony’s turnaround jumper put the Knicks ahead 69-68 and they led 78-77 after the three quarters.

The Raptors led 47-45 at the intermission, led by Lowry’s 12 points. Anthony led all first-half scorers with 18 points.

Lowry made three 3-pointers in the opening quarter to help the Raptors to a 26-24 lead. His second 3-pointer gave him the franchise record of 178 for one season. Guard/forward Morris Peterson set the previous record of 177 in 2005-06.

NOTES: Heat SG Dwyane Wade (hamstring) and C Greg Oden (back) missed their ninth straight games. … Heat F Udonis Haslem returned after missing two games because of the flu. … Heat C Chris “Birdman” Andersen (knee) returned after missing two of the past three games. … Pacers C Andrew Bynum (knee) missed his 14th straight game. … Since G Evan Turner made his Indiana debut on Feb. 25, the Pacers entered Friday’s game having been outscored by an average of 8.7 points per 48 minutes. With Turner on the bench, the Pacers were slightly outscoring their opponents. … Los Angeles Clippers F Danny Granger is the player the Pacers traded to get Turner. With Granger on the court this season, the Pacers outscored opponents by 116 points. With Turner, the Pacers have been outscored by 83. … Including the Pacers, 137 teams have reached the All-Star break playing at least .700 ball. Of those teams, the Pacers’ post-break record of 13-13 entering Friday was the second worst.