Wall, Wizards roll over Knicks in Christmas beatdown

There's a reason the Washington Wizards are hanging around the top of the Eastern Conference while the New York Knicks are floundering near the bottom, and it showed in a 102-91 Christmas Day victory for the Wizards at Madison Square Garden.

John Wall led the way, as usual, with 24 points, 11 assists, six rebounds and a steal, putting on a show for the New York crowd.

The Knicks put on a show of a different variety.

The Wizards built a double-digit lead early in the first quarter, increased it to 20 in the second half, and cruised for the most part, with a Quincy Acy tirade the most fight the Knicks showed all afternoon.

Acy was ejected for his part in the scuffle with Wall.

Carmelo Anthony scored a game-high 34 points in the loss, as the Knicks' franchise-worst start continued with the team falling to 5-26.

With the win, their 20th in 28 games, the Wizards moved within a game of the Atlanta Hawks for the Southeast Division lead and within 1.5 games of the East-leading Toronto Raptors.