OH, WELL: Danilo Gallinari and Amar’e Stoudemire try to shake off the Knicks’ 116-108 loss to the Clippers last night at the Garden. (Anthony J. Causi)
Mike D’Antoni (Anthony J. Causi)
Oh yes they did.
A light “We Want ‘Melo!” chant emanated from the Garden rafters in the third quarter, with the Knicks getting hammered by 14 points. The chant for Carmelo Anthony grew louder in the final minute when it was clear Blake Griffin’s Clippers would win with ease.
And after this horrible 116-108 loss to the resurgent Clippers last night at the Garden in which the Knicks fell behind by 20 points in the third quarter, livid coach Mike D’Antoni sounded like he wanted to chant the same phrase, too.
D’Antoni ripped his club as badly as he had all season, charging the team lacked “commitment” and “heart” requisite of a playoff club. According to the players, D’Antoni also lashed out at them in the locker room.
“He was angry,” Landry Fields said.
Perhaps D’Antoni was sending a message to management in his postgame press conference that they are not good enough. The playoff race tightens by the hour.
Knicks team president Donnie Walsh, too, must be fuming after this one — the type of lazy showing that ignites an itchy trigger finger. Anthony is right there, though he, too, spread bad news by commenting he would consider re-signing with the Nuggets.
“We didn’t have the energy to be a playoff team,” D’Antoni said angrily. “We thought we righted the ship and we just come out blah. The effort’s not good enough. There’s times you lay an egg, but it should never be because we don’t have the necessary heart or desire to do it. That was a total lack of commitment to beat a team that’s talented.”
The eyes of Amar’e Stoudemire, who racked up 23 points on 10 of 13 shooting, were blazing afterward.
“Before the game I said we had to focus,” Stoudemire said with disgust. “I guess I was talking to the wall.”
The problem with last night’s cries for Anthony is even he may not have helped. The Knicks defense was that sickly, and the Clippers’ starters enjoyed a scoring orgy.
“The Blake Show” ended badly for the Knicks, and “The Lake Show” might be uglier Friday night. The mighty Lakers grace the Garden for their lone appearance.
The Knicks fell to 26-25 and are in danger of falling to .500, if they lose to the Lakers.
Despite losing 11 of their last 16, the Knicks remain in the sixth seed but lead the Sixers by 2½ games and stand just 4½ games from falling out of the playoffs.
“We got to start fighting for what we believe is ours,” Stoudemire said. “Right now we’re just going through the motions. Right now we have a bunch of young guys who think we’ve done something. Nothing has been done yet. It’s a long year. We got to tighten up.”
Griffin wasn’t the only Clipper roughing up the Garden rims. The Clippers shot 54.7 percent. The rookie star scored just 21 points, but made two giant plays in the final three minutes to ice it and repel the Knick comeback from 20 down.
Griffin, who torched them for 44 points in the Knicks’ win in Los Angeles, ripped down a key offensive rebound with 2:47 left to set up another backbreaking Randy Foye 3-pointer.
Foye was brilliant in the fourth quarter, scoring 17 points of his 24 points as the Clippers five starters had impressive games, despite missing Eric Gordon (sprained wrist).
Free-agent-to-be center DeAndre Jordan, who has Walsh’s attention, was terrific, scoring 17 points on 8 of 9 shooting and grabbing eight boards. He also nearly tore the rim off on two alley-oop dunks. Ryan Gomes shot 8 of 11 and Baron Davis notched 16 assists.
Stoudemire provided his own scare, crashing to the court after tripping over Griffin as the rookie dunked. Stoudemire was face down for 20 seconds without moving, having tweaked his ankle. He left the court on his own power but moved gingerly and returned at the next timeout.
The Knicks trailed 58-47 at halftime after going 1 of 12 on 3-pointers, led by Danilo Gallinari’s 0-for-4 brickathon. D’Antoni’s tirade could be partially directed at Gallinari (21 points, 3 of 13, 1 of 8 from 3-point land, 14 of 14 from the free throw line).
“Sometimes we don’t want to put in the effort first, and we just want to win the game without having to go full out,” D’Antoni said. “Then we have to go full out and it’s too late.”
Stoudemire got rolling in the fourth and his driving slam made it 101-98 with 4:26 left but they couldn’t get closer.
In the deciding sequence, Stoudemire snatched a loose ball while prone to the floor. Instead of someone calling time out, Stoudemire was ruled out of bounds. The Clippers took over with an 8-point lead with 2:05 left and Griffin then hammered home an alley-oop pass from Foye for the clincher and precursor to the ‘Melo chorus.