The feel-good vibe is officially over for the Mike D’Antoni Era.
The Knicks are a horrible basketball club right now, looking as badly as anything former president/coach Isiah Thomas trotted out the past few years.
The Knicks disgraced themselves last night in front of a stunned crowd at the Garden against the awful Timberwolves in a landmark 120-107 loss, their worst of the season. They were blown out by a club that had lost 13 straight games and came into last night with a record of 4-23.
The Knicks were so embarrassingly bad, they made struggling point guard Sebastian Telfair, a Coney Island native, look like All-Star material. Telfair, whose role in Minnesota has been diminished, dominated the Knicks, explosive going to the basket in roasting his hometown team apart.
His cousin Stephon Marbury is banned from the building, but Telfair finished with 20 points, eight assists and three steals in 32 minutes, taking advantage of Knicks point guard Chris Duhon’s head wound, which was bloodier than this loss.
The Knicks fell to 11-17 and have lost five straight. The defeat made the blowout loss to Milwaukee at home on Dec. 19 look like roses.
D’Antoni is losing his grip. The coach gave the club two straight days off before Christmas – a move that backfired. D’Antoni was outcoached by interim Timberwolves coach Kevin McHale, who notched his first victory after going 0-8.
If there was a defensive game plan, it was ignored. The Wolves shot 51.4 percent. The worst 3-point shooting team in the league shot 54.2 percent from beyond the arc. Minnesota scored 30 points higher than its 95 average.
Doubling big man Al Jefferson down low opened up the 3-point line for Rashad McCants, who sank 7 of 8 treys and finished with 23 points.
“They just stood there and took wide open shots,” a disgusted D’Antoni said. “We were just bad defensively. We didn’t play hard enough and do the schemes we talked about. We made stuff up.”
Before the game, D’Antoni said, “These are games you have to win, need to win.” That the Knicks didn’t even compete is an alarming sign regarding their chances of staying in the playoff hunt past January.
It was a nightmare all around. The prospect of having an eight-man rotation was squashed when Quentin Richardson elected not to play because of a sprained ankle. Jared Jeffries made his return from a broken leg and had more turnovers (four) than points (three).
Duhon went down in a heap during the second quarter when McCants’ elbow clipped the side of his head. Duhon’s head was gushing blood that covered his face as he was helped off the court.
The point guard needed nine stitches and a bandage to come out for the second half. D’Antoni shut him down when he wasn’t effective after blowing a layup and throwing a bounce pass out of bounds for his fourth turnover.
“They just played harder,” Duhon said. “We never gave us a chance to win. I didn’t think we came prepared to play. We were horrible the whole time.”
Fears the two trades made on Nov. 21 have made the Knicks a bad team are coming true.
“It was one guy having a breakdown here, another guy having a break down there,” said David Lee, who fouled out.
Telfair ruled the court, sparking Minnesota’s first-half surge and making big play after big play in the fourth. Telfair predicted before the game he was ready for a breakout.
“If I can’t feel comfortable here, I can’t feel comfortable nowhere,” Telfair said afterward. “I had a sense, there’s a certain comfort level playing in your home city.”
T’wolves 120 Knicks 107