Carmelo Anthony was bent over with his hands pulling on his shorts. The look of exhaustion and disbelief was evident on his face. Raymond Felton stood under the basket in stunned silence, hands on hips.
Tim Hardaway Jr. simply looked above at the scoreboard, hoping somehow what he was seeing was not real. Mike Woodson, meanwhile, had seen enough. He left the court shaking his head as he walked toward the locker room.
As disappointing as this season has been, filled with so much frustration and heartbreak, what happened to the Knicks on Monday night was downright cruel.
The home team in turmoil had played hard and determined for four quarters, taking the Mavericks, hanging onto a playoff spot in the killer Western Conference, to the limit. The Knicks had erased an eight-point deficit with 1:37 to go to tie the game on Anthony’s 3-pointer — giving him the last of his 44 points — with 50 seconds left.
But then — after Anthony passed up a shot with the game still tied and J.R. Smith’s forced shot came up short as the shot clock expired — Dirk Nowitzki, a silent assassin for most of the game, pulled off one of those miracle shots that extended the Knicks nightmare of a season.
“As difficult a shot as you are going to hit,” is how Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle described it.
Guarded tightly by Carmelo Anthony, Nowitzki lofted a desperation turnaround jumper that bounced off the glass, twice hit the rim, before bouncing high in the air and through the basket at the buzzer. Mavericks 110, Knicks 108.
“Dirk hit a hell of a shot,” Woodson said. “What can you say?”
Carlisle said: “It was only fitting. The two best players out there were man-on-man.”
It would be nice to say the Knicks deserved better, but they didn’t. Good teams make their own luck. That’s why the Mavericks (35-23) won. It says something when all the Knicks’ luck seems to be bad. That’s what happens to bad teams.
The Knicks (21-36) left the Garden knowing they had no one but themselves to blame. They had their chance to take the lead on their final possession, but as has been the norm this season, they failed to execute in the clutch.
Anthony was guarded tightly by Vince Carter and couldn’t get off a shot. He passed to Smith with only a few seconds left on the shot clock. Smith tried to rush a shot, but he was off-balance and bumped by Mavericks guard Monta Ellis. The ball never got close to the rim. Instead of a foul, a shot-clock violation was called with 10.6 seconds remaining, setting up Nowitzki’s heroics.
“It was a play that didn’t go as planned,” Woodson said, referring to the Knicks’ last possession, “and Dirk made a big shot.”
That could sum up the Knicks’ season. Their plays don’t go as planned, while the other team makes big shots. The Knicks might call it hard luck, but it is really just more of the same.
“We just haven’t been able to get it done,” Woodson said.
Talk about Nowitzki’s miracle shot if you want. It’s the kind of shot great players make when you give them the chance. But this wasn’t all about Nowitzki. The Knicks hurt their cause by committing 19 turnovers, erasing the 41-34 edge they had in rebounding. They also allowed 34 points in the paint. If not for Anthony, who was 14 of 29 from the field, the Knicks wouldn’t have been close.
“Melo has been our most consistent player all year,” Woodson said. “The way he has played it’s a shame we’re in the position we’re in because our team doesn’t deserve it and he doesn’t deserve it based on the way he has played.”
The Knicks have now lost nine of their last 11. They deserve the misery. Hopes of making the playoffs are melting faster than the snow. The reality of a lost season is starting to set in.
“It’s numbing right now,” Smith said. “You can’t get a win when you need to and things aren’t going our way.”
Cruel, very cruel.