“Brutta Pallacanestro.”
That’s Italian for “bad basketball.” On Italian Heritage Night, that’s what the Knicks offered up — so lousy in that despicable first half they couldn’t beat the Italian League’s cellar dweller.
With Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani the most prolific Italian at the Garden, the Raptors took a 28-point lead in the second quarter and held on against what became a meaningless Knicks second-half rally to post a 112-104 victory.
“Our energy level wasn’t there, it was clear to see,” said Chris Duhon, who had an awful outing with six points and four turnovers. “Our focus wasn’t there.”
The ninth-place Knicks (16-23) play in Detroit tonight, having lost three of four games and failing to gain ground on the sixth-seeded Raptors (20-20).
Bargnani scored 24 points, making five of six 3-pointers. An inspired Danilo Gallinari came on strong to help the Knicks’ second-half comeback, keeping pace with his countryman and finishing with 26 points while making five of 10 3-pointers. It’s just too bad not more of the Knicks were Italian on this night.
“Everyone knows him,” Gallinari said of Bargnani. “He’s a great shooter, great player and he played a great game.”
David Lee, who played all 48 minutes, nearly notched his first career triple-double (25 points, 14 rebounds, career-high nine assists). Al Harrington had 31 points.
Gallinari had dinner with Bargnani and Raptors Italian guard Marco Belinelli at Gallinari’s favorite Italian restaurant in the East Village. But it looked like Gallinari’s teammates were the ones stuffed with too much pasta.
“We are friends,” Bargnani said. “He played a very good game, which is good. Of course there is competition. I think that’s normal. It was a big game in Italy because they were showing it live. For our country it is important. It is the first time three Italians played in the same game.”
Bargnani hit treys from as far away as his native Rome, hopping up and down after a couple of them. Bargnani’s display agitated David Lee so much, he got flagged with a technical foul in the second quarter.
Lee, after driving on Bargnani for a layup, imitated him by bouncing up and down in an exaggerated way in front of Bargnani. Lee had his excuse for being irritable, having flown back to St. Louis for his grandfather’s funeral yesterday and admitted “fatigue.”
“Andrea’s a good guy, there’s no hatred toward him,” said Lee. “He celebrated and yelled in one of our guys’ faces. It’s funny when I dunked it and did the same thing. Unfortunately the refs didn’t find it as funny.”
But the Knicks weren’t just attacked by Italy. They were bombed by Spain and Turkey, too. Jose Calderon, the Spanish point guard, burned the Knicks for 21 points off the bench and Hedo Turkoglu added 13.
As the Raptors blew them out, Calderon heated up in the second quarter with three 3-pointers — each time getting room, without a Knick putting a hand in his face.
“Him and Bargnani absolutely destroyed us,” Mike D’Antoni said. “We were tight in the first two quarters.”
Adding insult to injury, rookie DeMar Derozan, the Raptors starting shooting guard whom Donnie Walsh passed on to take Jordan Hill, hurt them with a 19-point barrage that included an alley-oop slam at the end of the first quarter and 11 free throws.
The Knicks made it exciting in the second half, cutting the 20-plus deficit to just eight points with 10:52 left, but that’s as close as they got.
Foul trouble early to Wilson Chandler and Jared Jeffries disrupted their defensive rhythm. But Jeffries didn’t do much when he was in. He gave Calderon room for a 3-pointer that put the Raptors up 49-24 early in the second quarter. After Sonny Weems hit a transition jumper, the Raptors led 51-24 with 8:11 left in the half. D’Antoni called timeout and the Garden booed in disgust.
The Raptors took a 17-3 lead after five minutes, the surge capped by consecutive Bargnani 3-pointers as the Raptors hit 12 of 22 treys, beating the Knicks at their own game.