David Lee lost the All-Star vote yesterday, the Knicks lost a heartbreaker and might have lost two key players to mysterious knee injuries.
Lee will not be in Dallas for the Feb. 14 showcase and the 18-27 Knicks will not be close to the .500 mark at the All-Star break after squandering a five-point lead in the final 1:39 and falling 106-104 to the Raptors at the Garden.
Responding to his All-Star snub, Lee racked up 29 points and 18 rebounds in another All-Star performance, but blew a last-minute layup and didn’t do enough late to help the Knicks pull out a victory.
MARBURY MAKING FRIENDS IN CHINA
And certainly Lee’s teammates didn’t do a thing to get the win late — notably Al Harrington, who was at the center of the Knicks’ disastrous final possession.
The injury news is also bleak as Jared Jeffries, who did not play the second half, and Harrington both will undergo MRI exams on their knees this morning — each has experienced pain for two weeks.
Yesterday, Lee found out he didn’t get voted in by the coaches as an Eastern Conference reserve, though he still can be named if another player drops out with an injury. The Knicks haven’t had an All-Star since 2001 — the last year they had a winning ledger.
Clearly, the deciding factor was the Knicks’ mediocre record, which now stands nine games south of .500 after a bitter defeat that should never have happened after a dominant 34-20 first quarter.
“I had a lot of motivation to get a win tonight, not to have a good game,” Lee said.
Off a pick and roll with Nate Robinson, Lee dunked hard with the right hand to give the Knicks a 102-97 lead with 1:49 left.
But then came the collapse, climaxed by an awful final possession with 7 seconds left. Danilo Gallinari had trouble getting in the inbounds pass on a play designed for Nate Robinson, who was getting face-guarded by Jarrett Jack.
Gallinari instead forced it in to Harrington, who had it knocked away by Andrea Bargnani. Harrington, who claimed to be hobbled, recovered the ball and barreled hard to the hole, committing a charging foul as his running right-hander in the lane clanked off the back iron with .8 seconds left.
“When I got it, my leg killed me and I had no brakes,” Harrington said.
It was not how the play was drawn up.
“Nate got hung up a bit and Gallo was worried about a five-second [violation],” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We didn’t have another timeout. That wasn’t where it was supposed to go.”
Harrington, who shot 5 of 16, didn’t shine moments earlier as he got blocked on an out-of-control layup with the Knicks up one. Jack, on the other end, bounced in a runner off the rim, giving Toronto a 103-102 lead with 50 seconds left.
Lee, with a chance to show up the coaches who voted against him, blew a driving layup, though he felt he got fouled. Afterward, Lee showed the red marks on his back to prove it.
Chris Bosh, who made the All-Star team yesterday, then drove on Wilson Chandler for a lefty swooping layup to give the Raptors a 105-102 lead. Bosh finished with 27 points and 15 rebounds.
Bosh blocked Robinson, playing late for a slumping Chris Duhon, on a drive, but Lee got the offensive rebound and laid it back in bringing the Knicks within 105-104 with 9.9 seconds left.
“I was glad to make that play because I would’ve felt like a dog out there,” Lee said.
Jack made just 1 of 2 free throws with 7 seconds left, putting the Knicks down two, giving them a chance.
But this should have been taken care of significantly earlier. The Knicks took a 22-11 lead after six minutes.
Lee made 5 of his first 6 shots and finished with 17 points in the half, making 7 of 10 buckets — an array of 18-foot jumpers and spinning drives.
Before the game, Lee said of the snub, “Plenty of motivation has been handed to me the rest of the season.”
Not enough to will a win last night.