Knicks co-captain Raymond Felton called out his team’s competitive spirit after yesterday’s matinee loss to the wretched Sixers — an atrocious 106-96 defeat. No, Amar’e Stoudemire’s Knicks are not beyond these kinds of despicable defeats, sadly.
About 43,000 brave souls gutted it out on cold Manhattan streets in The Marathon. Every one of them put forth a better effort than Stoudemire’s sleepy Knicks. From the noon tipoff on, they were outhustled by a Sixers club that was 1-5 and without its lone star, Andre Iguodala.
The Knicks, who fell to 3-3, shot 5 of 24 in the fourth quarter inside the Garden’s warm confines, and scored two points in the final 4:27.
Owner James Dolan heard boos overpower a kid-dominated sellout crowd. The only good news of the day: Dolan was not sitting next to Isiah Thomas.
“It’s very disappointing,” said Felton, who had third straight 10-assist game. “It was an early game, [but] no excuses. The other team won and wanted it more than we did. They played with more energy. They got to loose balls when they were supposed to, hit shots when they were supposed to. No knock to them but it’s a game we should’ve won. But they played better than we did.”
Stoudemire was having a solid game, but petered out in the closing minutes as he committed a killer turnover with 3:13 left and missed two free throws in the final 1:40. Stoudemire threw the ball out of the post and Sixers rookie Evan Turner picked it off at the perimeter and raced in for a fast-break layup and a 100-94 lead.
For once, Stoudemire didn’t sugarcoat a loss after the Knicks were outscored 26-15 in the fourth.
“Yeah, definitely not fun to lose to Philly,” said Stoudemire, who finished with an empty 21 points and 15 rebounds. “We know we are a much better team than we showed today. Definitely have to give a better effort next time. We have to have a better sense of urgency, more of a championship mind frame and make sure we close out teams. Stay up, fake up, stay down on shooters and do a better job on fouling.”
Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni pinned the loss on a rash of foolish third-quarter fouls, specifically two infractions by otherwise heady rookie Landry Fields, who bought two pump fakes by Louis Williams and fouled him twice on 3-point attempts. Williams connected on all six free throws.
“Landry Fields left his feet twice and he’s young,” D’Antoni said. “That’s six points we gave them right there.”
D’Antoni also got hot at Anthony Randolph early in the fourth. Randolph left Marcus Speights alone on a fast break after a Knicks bucket and the Sixers big man slammed home an alley-oop. D’Antoni called time and chewed out Randolph.
D’Antoni saw the big picture, too. A fourth-quarter meltdown in which the Knicks blew a 94-93 lead with 4:30 left was symbolic of the past era. Jrue Holiday’s offensive rebound off his own missed layup with 52 seconds left and Philadelphia up six became the clinching blow. The young Holiday, whom the Knicks nearly selected in the 2009 draft, reset the offense and killed more clock.
“That stuff happens when you’re trying to dig yourself out of a hole,” D’Antoni said of the collapse. “We’ve been in a hole for a few years. We don’t have that swagger.”
On a day the Knicks were frigid from 3-point range (3 of 19), they needed little things. The Knicks have a tough back-to-back in Milwaukee tomorrow and rampaging Golden State on Wednesday, when David Lee seeks revenge.
“This could be a positive for us,” Ronny Turiaf said. “It’s definitely a game we feel frustration, but [today] in the film room we can use that frustration to understand what we did wrong, what we did right. The frustration is we know we’re better than that.”
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Eddy Curry, out since the second day of training camp, is supposed to finally return to practice in full today, participating in scrimmages.