OKLAHOMA CITY — On a night it appeared the Knicks were going to bust their losing streak, Kevin Durant busted them up good, shooting a dagger straight through their hearts.
Durant’s fallaway 3-pointer at the buzzer from the right wing gave the Thunder a come-from-behind, 101-98 victory at OKC Arena, sent the Thunder players racing onto the court in celebration and sent the Knicks to their sixth straight loss. Heartbreaking doesn’t begin to tell the story.
“I’d rather get beaten by 15 points then get beat like that,” said Raymond Felton, whose late misses opened the door for Durant.
“That one hurt,” said coach Mike D’Antoni, whose club fell to just one game above .500 after finishing their Southwest trip at 0-3.
The Knicks led most of the game thanks to a rousing effort from Danilo Gallinari, who made Durant work for his points. But in the end, there was one final scene of D’Antoni staring daggers at the officials as they reviewed the Durant buzzer-beater. When they ruled he had unleashed it in time, it set off another thunderous ovation as D’Antoni stormed off.
“Once I let it go, it felt like everybody went silent,” Durant said. “Once it went in, I really couldn’t hear too much. I was looking toward the bench and once I snapped back into it, I really heard the crowd. That’s one of the all-time best feelings I’ve ever had in this league.”
The Thunder (28-15) rallied from six points down in the final three minutes. Durant finished with 30 points, but struggled to get there, shooting just 10 of 25.
Gallinari, who had a fine night covering Durant, may not have pressured Durant enough on the last trey, though D’Antoni said the Italian Stallion did all he could.
“I thought it was great defense,” D’Antoni said. “Danilo did a great job. Durant is just better. Give him credit. [Durant] deserved that one.”
Said Gallinari: “He is one of the best shooters in the NBA. He just hit a difficult shot.”
The Knicks had many chances to repel the Thunder in the final minute, but an ice-cold Felton kept missing and finished 5 of 16 — 1 of 6 in the final 3:20.
Felton is 29-of-94 during the Knicks’ six-game losing streak, and though D’Antoni would not question Felton’s late shot selection, his All-Star bid may have crashed last night.
“That’s what he does,” D’Antoni said. “He’ll knock down more than he misses.”
The buzzer-beating loss spoiled Gallinari’s solid outing. He went for an efficient 23 points in 29 minutes, drove hard to the basket, bagged three 3-pointers, blocked two shots and played fiery defense. But in the fourth quarter he had just one shot attempt in 8:17.
D’Antoni said Felton and Amar’e Stoudemire are the Knicks’ fourth-quarter “bread and butter,” but admitted they must start getting Gallinari more involved late.
“It’s something we got to do better,” D’Antoni said.
It was not Stoudemire at his best. For the second straight night, the banged-up big man didn’t score 20 points after 26 straight games of reaching that mark. He had 18 on 7 of 18 shooting, but was just 1 of 7 in the fourth quarter.
“We gave it hard-fought battle, but Kevin hit a great shot at the end,” Stoudemire said. “We played well enough to win. We had a great chance to win. We played great defensively. They shot 38 percent from the field.”
With the score tied at 98, the Knicks blew a chance to take the lead when Felton missed again — on a pullup jumper — and Durant grabbed the rebound with 6.5 seconds left and called time.
After Felton sank an off-balance left wing jumper to put them up 98-95 with 1:15 left, the Knicks went scoreless. Their rebounding woes haunted them when Serge Ibaka grabbed an offensive board off a Durant 3-point brick and got fouled by Stoudemire. He made both free throws to get it to 98-97 with 1:03 left.
Felton missed a 3-pointer, but the Knicks kept possession when the ball went out of bounds. Felton missed on a runner and Shawne Williams knocked down Russell Westbrook for a loose-ball foul on a controversial call, sending the guard to the line. Westbrook made 1 of 2 to tie the score at 98. It was his 17th free-throw attempt, and that left the Knicks irritated.
“I got to laugh at that, that’s all I can say,” Felton said.
Gallinari led the way early with an 18-point first half. But the Knicks still have not won since Gallinari’s return from a knee injury four games ago.
In a key sequence midway through the fourth quarter, Gallinari drew a charge on Durant, then promptly nailed a right-wing trey with 6:20 left to jack the lead to 87-81.
The night soon turned sour, but D’Antoni saw some good things — an aggressive and lively offense for 3½ quarters. The schedule gets easier — eight of the Knicks’ next 13 games come against losing teams, starting tomorrow at home against the Wizards.
“The encouraging thing is we played well,” D’Antoni said. “We played well tonight, played well [Friday in San Antonio]. I think we’re coming out of our malaise. But we lost a tough one.”