This is why the trade was supposed to be so grand. Carmelo Anthony with the ball in the final seconds. The game on the line.
This is why the trade so far has looked mediocre. The Knicks can’t play defense and Anthony did not deliver like a superstar in the final two minutes.
Anthony committed two charges in the final 1:32, including the crusher with 1.8 seconds left, and Knicks blew a 12-point fourth-quarter lead in allowing the league-worst Cavaliers to score at will down the stretch in a disgraceful 119-115 Garden defeat.
As an exasperated coach Mike D’Antoni walked out of the Garden, the Knicks coach muttered to a friend, “We can’t guard anybody.”
At least anybody wearing a Cavaliers jersey. Cleveland is 12-49 this season, but 3-0 against the Knicks. One week ago, the Knicks allowed the Cavs to score 115 points. Last night, in what Anthony called a “payback” game, Cleveland got to 119. Good thing the Knicks don’t face the Cavs in the first round.
The day after the trade for Anthony, in a quiet moment, D’Antoni admitted he was worried if the Knicks would be good enough on defense. So far, the answer is no.
“We’re not thinking about offense,” Anthony said more than an hour after the game. “We scored 115 points. That’s the easy part. We’re just trying to figure it out, what we’re going to do on the defensive end.
“I really don’t want to say it’s embarrassing, but it is a tough loss. Knowing we went out in Cleveland and lost to them, knowing how important it is to take care of home court. It’s a tough one to fathom.”
Trailing by two points after blowing a 12-point fourth-quarter lead, Anthony drove on Anthony Parker and beat him, but Newark’s Samardo Samuels stepped up and took a charge as Anthony’s layup missed.
“I guess it was an offensive foul,” Anthony said. “[The official] called it. I didn’t want to settle for a jump shot at that time. I saw a clear path. The guy [Samuels] came in and stepped in. He took a big charge.”
No heroic ending. No victory. Just a 3-3 record since the blockbuster while the Nuggets, armed with the Knicks’ former supporting cast, are 5-1.
The Knicks lost to a club that had won on the road just once before last night, when the Cavs snapped 26-game road losing streak.
D’Antoni’s team (31-29) likely would have won this with Chauncey Billups, who missed his second straight game with a bruised thigh. Fill-in point guard Toney Douglas, after his heroism Wednesday, had a tough night defending the Cavs’ point guards, Baron Davis and Ramon Sessions.
Trailing 102-90 with 7:20 left, Cleveland went on a late rampage and Davis, wearing No. 85 and making his Cavs debut, hit the backbreaking 3-pointer to give Cleveland a 110-106 lead with 10 seconds left.
That wasted Amar’e Stoudemire’s season-high-tying 41-point effort and Anthony’s two charges spoiled his efficient 29-point 10-of-16 from-the-field outing.
“They’re a very young team and you let them hang around, they can get hot,” Stoudemire said. “We didn’t come with the proper energy. The motto is to beat the teams we are supposed to beat, and we let that slip away.”
The Cavs outscored the Knicks 34-27 in the fourth quarter, when Cleveland shot 58 percent.
“A lot of times when you don’t close games out, you are at the mercy of other players,” D’Antoni said. “We did not have the consistency and tenacity at the end.”
With Douglas struggling, the Knicks even tried using Jared Jeffries to defend Davis in the final minute.
“The Garden is special, especially playing against a team that’s getting a lot of coverage,” Davis said. “They were prepared to beat us bad. We didn’t let that happen, so this victory is very sweet because there’s the sense of a miniature rivalry brewing here.”
Parker hit a huge left-corner trey to make it 113-112 with 43 seconds left. Shawne Williams passed up an open 3 from the left corner, dribbled in and took an awkward 17-footer that hit iron. Davis followed with a 3, and the Cavaliers took a 116-112 lead with 10 seconds left that became insurmountable.
Leading by just three after three quarters, the Knicks raced to a 12-point lead in the opening 2:50 of the fourth quarter, and led 102-92 with 7:16 left. Fans chanted “Melo” after he scored on a layup and foul, as he theatrically exhorted the fans behind the baseline. It should have been the night’s signature moment — not Davis’ trey or Anthony’s last-second charge.
“Should never have come down to that,” D’Antoni said.