The irony of the Knicks’ 24.5 seconds of hell that ended their heartbreaking 102-101 Washington loss is it began with a fortuitous break.
Beno Udrih got a bailout call on a drive down the lane after missing a chance to go two-for-one. Replays didn’t show much of a foul, but the ball got knocked away and off Udrih. He went to the line and made the first free throw to give the Knicks a 1-point lead. Then came a series of events that could one day cost Mike Woodson his job — if not this very week.
Udrih missed the next free throw and Washington called timeout, the Knicks clinging to that 1-point lead.
In the huddle, Woodson swears he told his troops they had a foul to give. This has been the Knicks’ Achilles heel since the Mike D’Antoni days — their inability to gamely commit non-shooting fouls in the final moments of close games. He didn’t mention anything about having three timeouts.
Bradley Beal had scored on two straight 3-pointers and an exhausted Udrih — not the fleetest defender to begin with and gassed from playing nearly the entire second half in Pablo Prigioni’s absence — was marking Beal.
“I don’t know what [the Knicks] were trying to do,” Wizards forward Marcin Gortat said. “They screwed up.”
Beal took the ball from the left wing, and instead of settling for another 3-pointer, he drove right at and past Udrih, who gave Beal so much airspace it seemed obvious he was expecting help from Andrea Bargnani. But zero help came (Bargnani is one of the worst help big-man defenders there is) and Beal cruised in for an easy layup for a 1-point lead with 6.9 seconds left.
“We all knew we had a foul to give, but we didn’t, and I have to take the timeout,” Woodson said.
We don’t know what Woodson was actually thinking, but he wasn’t thinking. He gave no explanation for why he didn’t signal for timeout right then and there. It wasn’t because he thought 6.9 seconds was enough time for Carmelo Anthony to race up court and make something happen, reversing his late-game slump with a spontaneous move.
No, Woodson just said he blew it. Meanwhile, Udrih and Bargnani exchanged words after Beal’s basket went in, the Slovenian point guard obviously miffed. So timeout wasn’t on Udrih’s mind either. He inbounded to Anthony, who also seemed puzzled. As in, where’s the timeout?
“I think we were expecting a timeout,” Anthony said.
View videoAt that juncture, Anthony could have called time, too. The Knicks would not have advanced the ball to halfcourt, but they could have set up again, then called another timeout and gotten the ball moved to halfcourt.
Instead, Anthony moved awkwardly, gingerly, leisurely upcourt. There’s no way to explain the lack of urgency with 6.9 seconds left. It looked as if he was running in quicksand.
He finally realized the timing, quickened his pace and tried to maneuver in close. He got to the 3-point line and heaved a desperation ball that never quite hit the iron, nicking the side of the backboard. Game over. Anthony threw his headband, his late-game shotmaking continuing on its rocky path.
“Tough way to lose a game,’’ Anthony said.
Tough way to lose a season.