ORLANDO, Fla. — Carmelo Anthony went down, Raymond Felton went down and the Knicks were ready to go down, collapsing and blowing almost all of their 25-point third-quarter lead.
Somehow the Knicks escaped with a 103-98 victory at Amway Center over the Magic, but not even a win can be savored in this jinxed Knicks season.
Anthony could be lost for the Christmas clash with the Thunder — or longer despite his optimism. Felton could be lost for at least a month after hearing a pop in his right groin.
Knicks embattled coach Mike Woodson can’t seem to catch a break.
“It’s just been that type of year,’’ Felton said as he hobbled out of the locker room.
After Anthony sprained his left ankle in the third quarter and Felton, playing for the first time after missing six games with a strained hamstring, hurt his groin in the fourth quarter, all looked lost.
The Magic closed to within a point, but the Knicks suspended belief in Disney City as unlikely heroes Andrea Bargnani and Iman Shumpert carried them home. Bargnani hit two big buckets down the stretch and Shumpert made two big defensive plays to salvage what looked to be turning into a giant nightmare.
“We did it today,’’ Anthony said. “We rallied today. We pulled this game out. Us pulling this game out helped my ankle out a lot.’’
The Knicks moved to 9-18, but Melo’s status is unknown, despite sounding confident about playing on Christmas. Even if he plays, he might be limited for some time. And for a long stretch Monday, the Knicks barely showed a pulse when he was out.
“It’s on,’’ Anthony said about playing Wednesday. “I still have it. It ain’t going nowhere. Hopefully I’ll be there. I don’t want to miss that game, Christmas at the Garden. I haven’t been 100 percent since I got in the league and I won’t be 100 percent [Christmas].’’
“I’m walking,’’ Melo added. “I caught it before I rolled it all the way, but I rolled it pretty bad. I can walk. I’m a little bit of pain. We’ll figure it out [Tuesday].’’
Anthony sprained his left ankle with 7:26 left in the third quarter and the Knicks up 20. He committed an offensive foul and landed on Tobias Harris’ foot. He came up limping severely and hobbled to the bench, never to return. He finished with 19 points after spurring the team in the first half.
The Knicks were outscored 35-19 in the third quarter, the Magic cut the lead to a point with 8:20 left before the Knicks got things stabilized.
“We didn’t have Melo on the court,’’ Bargnani said. “It’s tough. We got over the shock.’’
Felton went down to the court with 3:15 left with play ongoing after getting shoved by Jameer Nelson reaching for the ball. After being down for nearly a minute, he got up and hobbled directly to the locker room.
Afterward, Felton said he heard “a pop’’ — a bad sign. He likely will need an MRI and a torn groin muscle could shelve him until February.
Monday marked the first time all season, with the injuries and J.R. Smith’s marijuana suspension, the Knicks had their top six all playing in one game — Tyson Chandler, Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, J.R. Smith, Shumpert and Felton. Now they are back to square one.
But Bargnani held off Orlando’s monster charge. He made two straight buckets, sandwiched around a Nikola Vucevic basket for the Magic, before Harris lost it out of bounds with the Knicks leading 95-91 and 2:00 left.
“They made a hell of a run, but I applaud our team because we still made plays,’’ Woodson said. “We kind of hung our heads [at first].’’
A struggling Shumpert intercepted a pass by Arron Afflalo and went all the way in for a layup and 97-91 lead with 1:40 left. In a huge defensive play, Shumpert slapped the ball away from Glen Davis, who was barreling in on a breakaway layup.
The ball went out of bounds with 1:02 left and awarded, after a review, to the Magic but they couldn’t convert. Davis missed a jumper and Vucevic fouled Chandler battling for the rebound.
Chandler finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Smith had a splendid first half before petering out and finished with 18 points.
The Knicks had built a 65-41 lead at halftime after Anthony and Smith combined to score 31 points. Melo had 17 and put a cherry on top of the second quarter by hitting a left-side jumper as the buzzer sounded. The Knicks walked off the court, trying to contain their smirks after outscoring Orlando 36-14 in the second quarter.
But nobody was laughing afterward.