Carmelo Anthony went cold, Raymond Felton went to the bench and Mike Woodson went after the referees.
With Anthony going stone cold in the second half and Woodson’s seat growing warmer by the day, the Knicks dropped their third straight in a 94-90 loss to the Trail Blazers at the Garden to fall to 19-30, dropping 2 ¹/₂ games behind the Bobcats for the No. 8 seed.
Anthony scored 14 points in the first quarter but then his game dried up, going scoreless in the fourth quarter. He shot just 4-of-16 in the second half and finished with an empty 26 points on a night he was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for January.
Anthony finished 11-of-28 from the field and went 0-for-5 in the final period. He had no field goals but one technical foul.
Woodson, feeling the heat, looked to be charging after the officiating crew during a timeout in the game’s final 25 seconds, but was held back by his coaching staff. After the buzzer, Woodson walked toward the officials and started cursing at them before assistant coach Darrell Walker escorted him off the court.
“I hope you sleep well tonight,” Woodson yelled at referee Danny Crawford before unleashing a string of expletives as he exited the court.
Woodson was enraged when Anthony didn’t get a call as he missed badly on a driving shot with 29 seconds left despite a lot of contact. The Knicks were down four and needed a bucket.
“We put Melo in a great position, down four, with 35 seconds on the clock, and I looked back on the tape and I thought it was clearly a foul,’’ said Woodson, whose remark could draw a reprimand from commissioner Adam Silver in his first week on the job.
There are renewed whispers owner James Dolan was unhappy with the Knicks losing to the league-worst Bucks on Monday night, but only the owner knows if he is close to making Woodson the fall-guy for this losing season.
Nevertheless, the Knicks played hard for the coach, especially on the defensive end, holding the high-flying Blazers, who were averaging 108 points, to 14 below their average.
“If something was to happen, it’s out of my hands,’’ Anthony said, referring to the talk of Woodson’s future.
Anthony had the game in his hands and took the blame for his misfires.
“I couldn’t find it coming down the stretch,’’ he said. “Nothing I can do about the calls. Regardless the way we thought it should’ve went, I missed a lot of shots. Some wide-open shots. I missed chippies. It was all on me tonight.’’
Felton, the goat in Milwaukee, was 2-of-6 for seven points when Woodson finally benched him for the entire fourth quarter, letting Pablo Prigioni become the lone point guard. But the Knicks offense still couldn’t get enough done, and they couldn’t take advantage of an off night from Portland point guard Damian Lillard, who scored just 12 points.
Woodson said he stayed with Prigioni because he was playing so well.
“It wasn’t falling for us tonight,’’ Anthony said. “We’ve been down this road before. We got to find out way out of it. No need to panic.’’
The Knicks were a wreck from the 3-point line, shooting 4-of-20.
“There should have been a sense of urgency for some time,” said Amar’e Stoudemire, who scored 15 points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes after complaining about a lack of playing time. “We should have had a sense of urgency months ago.”
Trailing 89-81, the Knicks rallied. J.R. Smith (18 points) drilled a 3-pointer, then Prigioni stole the ball and Tim Hardaway Jr. drilled another 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 89-87.
That’s where the comeback ended. LaMarcus Aldridge (15 points) scored on a turnaround over Tyson Chandler to make it 91-87 with 35.5 seconds left.
“I thought I played good defense on it but he played better offense,’’ Chandler said. “I forced him into a look I wanted.’’
“I don’t like losing period,’’ Chandler said. “I will never get accustomed to it. But I thought we played well enough to win, especially defensively.’’