JR Smith benched again as sluggish Knicks see five
Brock Williams-Smith/NBAE/Getty ImagesBOBCATS 108, KNICKS 98
CHARLOTTE - Someone's minutes are bound to be slashed - and perhaps altogether - as injured and ill Knicks continue to return to the lineup.
J.R. Smith was that someone Mike Woodson once again elected to sit on Tuesday night.
Tyson Chandler returned following a four-game bronchitis absence - and Smith was completely omitted from the rotation for the second time in four games - as the Knicks' season-best five-game winning streak ended with a 108-98 loss to the Bobcats at Time Warner Cable Arena.
The Knicks didn't claim Smith was sick or injured before the game, but the reigning Sixth Man Award winner wasn't used at all despite a sluggish shooting start for leading scorer Carmelo Anthony, who came on late and managed 20 points on 9-for-22 shooting.
Rookie swingman Tim Hardaway Jr. - used as the first guard used off the bench for the fourth straight game - scored all of his 11 of his 12 points in the first half. Amar'e Stoudemire had 17 points and Raymond Felton added 13 before fouling out as the Knicks (15-23) slipped back to a half-game behind Brooklyn for the No.8 playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
Smith had totaled 52 minutes and scored 24 points over the previous two games following a one-game benching last Thursday against Miami after he was fined $50,000 by the NBA for twice attempting to untie an opponent's shoelaces during a game. Smith distantly sat at the end of the bench throughout Tuesday's game and barely took part in huddles during timeouts, although he did pop off the bench to for a leaping chest-bump with Stoudemire after the latter threw down an emphatic dunk at the end of the third quarter.
With many Knicks fans in the crowd, chants of 'J.R. Smith' broke out multiple times during the game, but his name was never called by Woodson, who even inserted Jeremy Tyler (six points) and Cole Aldrich for the closing minutes of garbage time.
'The bottom line is he's got to be more of a pro and do the right things and just concentrate on basketball. That's the name of the game, nothing else,' Woodson had said about Smith before Monday's overtime win against Phoenix, in which the Jersey product scored 10 points in 25 minutes off the bench. 'That is simple to me.'
For much of the Knicks' laggard start to this season, Woodson also had talked about the importance of getting Chandler back in the lineup for the team to reverse course and get back into the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. But the Knicks had been playing their best ball of the season with Chandler essentially sidelined for the entirety of their five-game winning streak.
Woodson estimated that Chandler, who also missed six weeks with a fractured leg earlier this season, likely would play '20-to-30' minutes in his first appearance since he removed himself in the first quarter from the first win in the streak on Jan. 5 in Dallas.
Chandler ended up playing 17 minutes, netting five points - including an alley-doop slam from Hardaway - and four rebounds.
Woodson scoffed before the game when asked if he believed the team's recent surge was a measure of 'vindication' for him after enduring several weeks about his job being in jeopardy earlier this season.
'I don't know if it's vindicated, I think when you change rosters, it's not like we had the core group intact to start this season,' Woodson said. 'We didn't have it intact, and you start with the core group, and you add pieces around the core group, and you hope that those pieces fill in and they do what's asked of them around the core group.
'But we never had the core group, and we still haven't had it. So we just gotta be patient, we'll get the core group back, and I really feel good about our new guys because they're starting to contribute and help. It's not a vindication or anything.'
With Chandler often looking a step slow defensively, the Knicks couldn't stop Bobcats big man Al Jefferson, who finished with a game-high 35 points. Kemba Walker pumped in 25, including two big threes after the Knicks had moved within four at the start of the fourth quarter, for Charlotte.
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