OAKLAND, Calif — The signs were there on Christmas Day, of course, bright warning flares that filled Madison Square Garden every bit as much as did the hopeful holiday din.
The Knicks are a team of fragments right now, three foundation players and a gaggle of roster guys who either aren’t as good as they used to be, aren’t as good as they’re going to be, or haven’t declared one way or another yet. We saw that against the Celtics; they survived, because two of those foundation players, Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, were sublime when they needed to be.
We saw that again last night at Oracle Arena against the Warriors, and this time they imploded, busted to bits by a 28-6 spurt that closed the third quarter and opened the fourth, that turned a three-point lead into a 19-point deficit, that transformed a winnable road game into an unwatchable 92-78 slop of a loss.
“We’re just not in synch right now,” coach Mike D’Antoni said, using the kindest of descriptions for what he had just seen. “Whatever mistakes we could make, we made. We’re not quite ready.”
They weren’t ready in the opener, either, but were saved because their All-Stars played like All-Stars. This time, Anthony and Stoudemire missed 18 of their 27 shots, the backcourt came up micro-small (a troubling habit through two games), and Tyson Chandler was haunted by foul trouble and frustration. And, for a second straight game, the moment chandler went to the bench the Knicks reverted to their old defensive ways.
Which means two words for any grateful opponent:
Layup line.
“Our timing isn’t there yet,” D’Antoni said.
Yes. There’s lots of work to be done, and so little time in which to do it. Maybe we always knew the Knicks weren’t the kind of team that could simply sprint out of the chute, not after a long lockout and a short preseason and the on-the-fly feel the roster has. Not with Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby sharing the point right now. Not with the new commitment to defense still hanging by razor-thin threads. You knew there were going to be nights when the Knicks would struggle, especially on the road.
But this wasn’t so much a struggle as a collapse. The Knicks were blind-sided at the end by a team that itself is still trying to learn that there are two ends to a basketball court.
In truth, it looked like a carbon copy of the opener, the Knicks playing well on both ends of the floor in the first half, sharing the ball as well as defen
ding it, and the Warriors couldn’t get out of their own way, much as the Celtics couldn’t on Christmas Day.
Then, the third quarter: some sloppiness, some skittishness, Anthony getting a fourth foul, gaining exile to the bench, the Warriors getting confidence, closing the gap taking a lead. Almost eerily similar, in fact.
But this wasn’t the Garden with pleading desperate fans urging them on. This was Oracle, one of the underrated noise centers in the NBA, and these were Warriors still eager to please Mark Jackson, their new coach, who once upon a time wanted very much to be the Knicks’ coach.
You can blame everyone, if it makes you feel better. Blame Anthony, who tried shooting his way out of a game-long funk and never could. Blame Chandler’s propensity for cheap fouls, which we already can see is a fast track toward trouble. Blame the fact that every game the Knicks play without Baron Davis, or a point guard of his ilk, is another day when that absence screams out into the abyss.
Blame all of that if it makes you feel better before watching the Knicks tonight, in Los Angeles, against the Lakers; all you need to do is look around the league and see teams that simply weren’t equipped to start a season like this just yet.
“We aren’t the only ones,” D’Antoni said.
No medals for that. No lovely parting gifts. The Knicks don’t have to get this turned immediately. But it must get turned. Right now they aren’t terribly easy on the eyes, and that’s about the nicest thing you can say about them.