Practice and Rest Are No Help to the Knicks
The Orlando Magic arrived at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday for their second game (in two countries) in a 27-hour span. They were hoping to avoid the pitfalls of the dreaded back-to-back, one of the more exhausting realities of the N.B.A. schedule.
No practice. Little rest. And facing an opponent that was benefiting from plenty of both.
So the Knicks appeared to have everything going for them, with the possible exception of a five-game losing streak - a psychological drag on their halting pursuit of competence. And still, the Knicks could not take advantage as the Magic escaped with a 97-95 victory.
Before J. R. Smith's last-gasp 3-pointer sailed long, the Knicks (2-7) were undone by poor perimeter defense and foul trouble. Carmelo Anthony, who called for the ball in the closing seconds, to no avail, finished with 27 points while shooting 10 of 17.
Evan Fournier scored 28 points for the Magic (3-6), who shot 47.1 percent and went to the free-throw line 32 times.
Before the game, Coach Derek Fisher said he was grateful for the opportunity to practice Tuesday. The Knicks had played five games in seven days, losing every one of them, so an afternoon to regroup qualified as a luxury.
'Practice allows you to prepare for games, and we haven't had that space in a while,' Fisher said.
If his point was obvious, it was still worth making. There was work to be done.
The Knicks' hard labor continued against the Magic. With his team trailing by 10, Fisher called a timeout 54 seconds into the third quarter. The Knicks managed to respond. Anthony scored 7 points in a 9-0 run as the Knicks regained the lead before he retreated to the bench with four fouls.
By the time Anthony re-entered the game midway through the fourth quarter, the Knicks were trailing by a single point. He picked up his fifth foul less than two minutes later.
It was too much for the Knicks to overcome. After Anthony whittled the lead to 2 with a 3-pointer and a free throw, Orlando's Channing Frye sank a turnaround jumper in the lane for a 94-90 lead. Anthony drilled a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 96-95 with 4.3 seconds left.
After Fournier sank 1 of 2 free throws, the Knicks had time to set up one final play. Pablo Prigioni inbounded the ball to Smith, who threw one up from 27 feet. It banked off the bottom part of the backboard. Game over.
Fisher said he drew up a play with multiple options. 'Once the ball came to J. R., he trusted himself,' Fisher said. 'I have no problem with a guy believing in himself.'
Fisher has shuffled his lineups more than a deck of cards, and he was at it again at the start of Wednesday's game, sliding Anthony to small forward to make room for Quincy Acy at power forward. Acy has been hampered by a sore wrist, but Fisher said he was hoping that Acy could put defensive pressure on Frye.
Frye was not the problem for the Knicks, at least not early on. Neither was the Knicks' triangle offense, a construction project since training camp.
Instead, the Knicks were hindered by their defense. Fournier, a long-limbed shooting guard, was 5 of 6 from the field in the first quarter, scoring 15 points. The Knicks provided little resistance as the Magic ran out to a 31-27 lead.
It was more of the same in the second quarter. The Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire got the crowd riled up by dunking over Nikola Vucevic, who responded by burying a long jumper on the following possession. In the closing seconds of the second quarter, Vucevic connected on a spin move to give the Magic a 56-50 lead at halftime.
The game doubled as a homecoming for Orlando's Tobias Harris, who grew up on Long Island and finished with 12 points.
'You have to have the confidence to take the shot,' Harris said of his new role as Orlando's go-to option, 'and then you've got to live with the consequences of it, too.'
It has been a process for the Knicks, too. When Phil Jackson, the team president, spoke with members of the news media on Monday night, he said the team would probably have a good feel for which players were picking up on the system by late November or December. He seemed to be implying some sort of informal deadline.
It is no secret that the Knicks will undergo enormous change next summer, with Jackson preserving space under the salary cap to bolster the roster, while allowing several fat contracts to expire. On Wednesday, Fisher was asked about investing so much time and energy in players who may not be here for long.
'To assume anything is not very smart at all,' Fisher said. 'Guys that you assume will be here for a long time may not. Guys that you think won't be here could be here forever. So it's really only my job to focus on the here and now.'
Even if, after another loss, the here and now is not a particularly pleasant place to be.
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