Coach Mike D’Antoni’s Knicks had at least one thing going for them last night, entering the second of a back-to-back with the Bulls.
“Historically it’s hard to beat a team twice in a row,” D’Antoni said before last night’s rematch. “Supposedly that’s NBA wisdom.”
NBA wisdom didn’t turn out to be very intelligent last night at the Garden.
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The Knicks, who were pounded 118-85 by the Bulls on Tuesday night, owned a 15-point lead in the second quarter, led by 14 with 8:34 to go in the third and even had a shot to tie in the final seconds after blowing their entire lead.
Instead, they blew it all, falling to the Bulls 115-109 and losing both ends of their home-and-home with Chicago.
The spiraling Knicks, who have lost five in a row and eight of nine, have dropped eight games this season in which they had a double-digit lead. They also saw Jared Jeffries — who’s part of a potential Tracy McGrady deal — hyperextend his knee, jeopardizing his availability for Saturday’s game (if he’s still a Knick).
Trailing by three with 28.7 seconds left, Danilo Gallinari had two shots to hit maybe his biggest basket as a Knick. But the struggling Gallinari missed a contested three-pointer with 23.9 left, then was way short on another three with 16.9 to go. A steal by the brilliant Derrick Rose — who had 27 points last night after pouring in 29 on Tuesday — then sealed it.
“I told him that I’ll take those two shots any day of the week from him,” David Lee said. “Especially the second one was wide open. And I believe he’s going to hit those every time.”
It hasn’t happened lately for Gallinari, who shot just 5-for-18 last night, missing 11 of his final 13 attempts. Gallinari is shooting just 37 percent in his last 11 games.
More disturbingly for the Knicks, Gallinari wore a white sleeve on his right arm last night. He suffered a sore forearm last week.
“It’s something that we are doing to protect the forearm a little bit,” he said.
Is the forearm impacting him on the court? Gallinari insists it’s not.
“It bothers me, but it’s not impacting me,” he said.