Coach Mike D’Antoni’s Knicks, the league’s highest-scoring team, rolled up points again last night with their usual fury.
But when the Knicks needed just one more bucket to clinch victory in a game they led throughout, they reverted to their old choking ways. They reverted to the past. They reverted to when they didn’t know how to win.
In what for now can be viewed as an uncharacteristic offensive seizure, the Knicks missed their final 14 shots, going scoreless in the final 2:26 of regulation and failing to notch a field goal in overtime.
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Dallas scored the first eight points in overtime as Dirk Nowitzki shredded them on his way to 39 points as the Knicks dropped a 124-114 Garden heartbreaker.
“We should have won it in regulation and we didn’t,” D’Antoni said. “We blew our chances. We didn’t hit the big shot to win the game.”
After 10 games, the Knicks are still a solid 6-4. But the entire Garden crowd tasted a 7-3 record before the collapse. The Knicks blew a seven-point lead in the final 2:26.
“It’s real tough,” said Zach Randolph, whose 27-point, 18-rebound night was wasted. “Disappointed. I felt like we had this game.”
Old habits die hard.
“We have been in the position before,” said Jamal Crawford, 2 for 14 after the first half. “We had the lead late and didn’t capitalize.”
Crawford finished with 16 points. Chris Duhon also added 16 with 12 assists.
The Knicks shot 0 for 9 in overtime, missing a number of layups, and were outscored 12-2.
“There was a lid on the basket,” David Lee said. “We couldn’t buy one.”
The Knicks are now in danger of falling back to .500 with two straight road games, in Boston tomorrow vs. the world champions and Friday in Milwaukee, which routed the Knicks at the Garden.
“It was a good first 10 games and now the next 10 will be tougher,” D’Antoni said. “We have to grow a lot more.”
The Knicks led by 13 in the first half and were up double-digits six minutes in after making 10 of their first 11 shots. But Dallas chipped away all game, secured 18 offensive rebounds and finally tied it at 112 on a Jason Terry make with 38.9 seconds left.
The fans rose out of their seats to cheer on the Knicks on their penultimate possession that ultimately failed despite three chances to score. Quentin Richardson, who had a hot fourth quarter, missed a mid-range jumper, but the ball was batted right back to him. Richardson drove and blew a lefty layup.
“I couldn’t believe I missed,” Richardson said.
Randolph’s tip was short. On the ensuing scramble, Terry wound up with the ball with 9.5 seconds left. Though Terry missed a top-of-the-key jumper over Duhon at the buzzer, the Knicks came out for overtime tight.
At 4:39 of overtime, Dallas took their first lead since the opening minutes on two Nowitzki free throws. Nowitzki hit a jumper for a 117-112 lead and then hit a 3-pointer that made it 120-112 and set him off into a arm-waving celebration as the Knicks called time, knocked out before they knew what hit them.
“I was forcing him to shoot tough, 17-foot fadeaways off one leg at seven-feet tall, but they went down,” Lee said. “That’s why he is an All-Star.”
Randolph blistered from the start, posting 20 points and 11 boards by halftime. But he too went stone cold, missing his last five shots and not taking one in overtime.
D’Antoni said he believes the late-game fold was an aberration.
“Jamal is one of the clutch players around and Zach also has no conscience,” D’Antoni said.