OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- Nick Van Exel appears to be fully rehabilitated. The same cannot be said for his good friend Antonio McDyess.
Van Exel scored 13 of his 15 points in the third quarter as the Golden State Warriors dealt McDyess and the New York Knicks their fourth straight loss, 104-92.
In his first season with the Warriors, Van Exel missed seven games early this season recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery. After a quiet start, he has averaged 19.5 points in his last four games.
"I was a little passive in the first half, but in the third quarter I was more conscious (of) trying to get to get us in a flow and pick up the tempo a little bit," Van Exel said.
"Van Exel did an excellent job of distributing and scoring," Knicks coach Don Chaney said. "He got it going and took over the game."
McDyess, who developed a friendship with Van Exel during their days as teammates with the Denver Nuggets, had not played since March 2002 due to a pair of much more serious knee injuries.
The former All-Star had played increasingly better in each of his first three games but took a step back in his first game on consecutive nights.
McDyess scored just eight points on 3-of-6 shooting and was not as active as he was Friday at Portland. The Knicks have not won since McDyess made his return.
"The second half, I didn't feel so well, but I tried to fight through it," said McDyess, who played 22 minutes off the bench. "I feel this is a small problem. Our big problem is trying to get a win right now. With our personnel, we should be winning a lot more games. I don't know what it is, but we've got to get it together." The Warriors also got a big lift from Brian Cardinal, who scored 19 points and led a huge effort off the bench. Golden State's reserves outscored New York's, 49-27.
"In order for us to be successful, we need our bench to play big for us," said Cardinal, who also had career highs of eight rebounds and five assists."
"He hit some big shots," said Knicks forward Keith Van Horn, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds. "We weren't exepcting him to hit the 3-point shot like he did, and he forced our big men to help (on) him."
Van Exel scored 11 points in the first 6 1/2 minutes of the third quarter, turning a one-point lead into a 69-58 advantage.
The Knicks closed to 83-82 with a 9-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Shandon Anderson, who scored 17 points as a late replacement for leading scorer Allan Houston (sore right knee). But the Warriors responded with nine straight points and led by at least eight thereafter.
Calbert Cheaney scored 14 points for Golden State, which shot 53 percent (44-of-83) from the field and had seven players in double figures. The Knicks shot 57 percent (41-of-72).
Golden State has won three straight meetings and visits New York later this month.
