INDIANAPOLIS — The Knicks had their chance to beat the Pacers without Danny Granger Sunday night at the Garden and blew it.
Granger, who sat out with the flu Sunday, made his return last night and sickened all of New York with a last-second, game-winning, 17-foot jumper that gave the Pacers a home-and-home sweep of the reeling Knicks.
Carmelo Anthony was one-upped by Granger as the Knicks suffered a another loss to the Pacers, who had lost six straight games before feasting in back-to-back wins on a Knicks defense that is infected with a spreading virus.
After Anthony scored on a left-baseline drive to tie the score at 117-117 with 7.8 seconds, it left time for the Knicks defense to allow one more bucket.
Granger hit a stepback 17-footer over his former Pacers teammate Shawne Williams with 0.3 seconds left to deliver the Knicks a heart-wrenching, 119-117 loss and make them a mediocre 6-6 since the Melo blockbuster trade three weeks ago.
“Granger hit a tough shot,” said Anthony, who finished with 29 points. “Shawne was on him. He made a tough shot.”
Maybe so, but the Pacers scored at will late, notching 13 points in the final 2:52 to overcome a four-point deficit as the Knicks got just one stop in that span.
“That’s going to be our Achilles heel,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We have to get better at it.”
The Knicks had one last gasp with 0.3 seconds left and Jared Jeffries tried to lob it to Landry Fields for a tip-in, but threw it out of bounds. Anthony was wide-open calling for the ball at the perimeter, wanting the shot, but the Knicks coaching staff believes a catch-and-shoot in that scenario is implausible. Amar’e Stoudemire’s attempted game-winner against the Celtics in December with 0.4 seconds left was waved off.
The Knicks overcame a 15-point late-third-quarter deficit to put them in position to win. Rugged Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough again brutalized the Knicks, scoring a career-high 30 points to eclipse the career high of 29 he set in Sunday’s win. Hansbrough punctuated his night with a vicious dunk on Stoudemire.
Anthony seemed to be taking a poke at the team’s defensive strategy after the game when asked about Hansbrough’s night.
“We all know what he’s capable of doing — he hasn’t been missing that shot,” Anthony said. “I don’t think we made adjustments to him at the top of the key, especially after the game he had in the Garden. I’d think we’d make adjustments after that.”
On the final play, Granger drove on Williams and pulled up on the right wing, with Jared Jeffries also flying at him too late.
“I got to do a better job making that shot a little tougher,” Williams said. “We got to take more pride on defense. You got to take everything personal on the defensive end. We got to get it going. We got to look in mirror and take more pride on defense.”
Taking advantage of five fouls on Stoudemire, 7-foot-2 center Ray Hibbert (15 points) hurt the Knicks inside in the final minutes, exposing their lack of size since the trade.
With 2:14 left, Hibbert ripped down an offensive rebound off a Darren Collison miss and was fouled. Hibbert made both free throws to tie the score then blocked a Stoudemire layup attempt.
Meanwile, speedy point guard Collison (24 points) wreaked havoc early, middle and late. At one juncture, Collison’s crossover caused Chauncey Billups to fall backwards on his butt from the fakeout as Indiana fans chanted, “Broken ankle.”
“We fought hard to get back in the game,” said Stoudemire, who finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds in 33 foul-plagued minutes. “We had a chance to win, but we couldn’t get a stop down the stretch.”
Anthony may have left too much time on the clock after his lovely game-tying score, but D’Antoni had no problem with it. Getting the inbounds with 13 second left, down two, Anthony beat Granger on a baseline drive.
“I wanted to go quick, try to get something real quick,” Anthony said. “I didn’t want to give them a chance to set up. If I caught it or held it, the defensive would’ve loaded up and who knows what would’ve happened.”
It was the Knicks’ 117th point of the night. For most playoff teams, that’s plenty enough.
“If we score that many points all the time, it will go a long way most nights,” said Billups, who scored 14 points but committed a key turnover on a low-post pass to Stoudemrie with 16 seconds left.
“Nobody in this locker room wants to lose,” Hansbrough said.
Since the trade, nobody on the Knicks wants to play consistent defense.