TORONTO — Mike Woodson didn’t want to wait until today to view the final minutes of last night’s game against the Raptors at Air Canada Centre. Soon after Toronto had claimed a 100-98 victory, Woodson headed straight to the locker room and turned on the video to review the final minutes.
At least it wasn’t a lack of effort that doomed the Knicks. It was a lack of execution during the most important stretch of the game that resulted in their fourth-straight loss and fifth defeat in six games.
“I thought our shot selection was awful. We were in the penalty and we settled,” Woodson said. “We had opportunities to take the ball to the rim and make plays. But we settled and they made the plays down the stretch and we didn’t.”
No, it wasn’t a disaster of a loss like the one against the Pacers two nights ago, when the Knicks were lifeless at both ends of the court. But it was a stinging defeat nonetheless for a team in desperate need of a win. The Knicks are long past the point of moral victories. A team with championship aspirations can’t feel good about being outplayed in the final 1:29 when the game was tied 95-95.
Among the miscues that irritated Woodson was Carmelo Anthony giving up the ball to Raymond Felton, who missed a 3-pointer with 52 seconds remaining. And Anthony, after an inbound play designed for him to shoot, passed the ball to Tyson Chandler, who was fouled with 21.4 seconds left and the Knicks trailing 97-95. Tyson missed the front end of two shots and the Raptors iced the game from the free-throw line.
“Maybe a couple of those possessions we should have gotten to the basket instead of taking jump shots,” Felton said.
Here’s the deal. If the Knicks weren’t in “a slump,” as Chandler called it, losing this type of road game wouldn’t be so devastating. But it looks as if the Knicks are starting to find different ways to lose games. Blowouts … close games … the results have been agonizingly the same.
“We played hard enough to win,” Chandler said. “But we just made mistakes in execution.”
Woodson, like everybody else who has an interest in the Knicks, was unsure exactly what he would see last night after a 125-91 beat down in Indianapolis on Wednesday. Like the rest of us, Woodson is waiting for the real Knicks to stand up. Question is, are the real Knicks the team that was 21-9 at the end of December or the one that has gone 14-15 over its last 29 games?
Actually, the Knicks were a bit of both last night. The defense wasn’t very good in the first quarter when the Knicks gave up 32 points and it was downright awful in the third quarter when they were outscored 31-19.
To the Knicks’ credit, though, they battled back from a 13-point deficit to lead 88-86 on a J.R. Smith jumper with 6:09 remaining. At that point it was the kind of game either Anthony, who had 32 points or Smith (19 points) would win down the stretch back in November and December. But last night, Anthony gave up the ball and the Knicks gave up the win.
Anthony is in a no-win situation. Maybe he should have worked for a shot instead passing the ball to Felton. That was his coach’s preference. Maybe he shouldn’t have tried to pass the ball to Chandler, who momentarily broke free in the lane, but was fouled as soon as he caught the ball. If Anthony had taken the shot in both instances and missed, he would be questioned for not giving the ball up.
That’s what happens when teams are slumping. No decision is the correct one.
“We’ve got to get over this hump,” Anthony said. “We have to remain confident and positive.”
That will only come with wins. First, the Knicks have to stop finding different ways to lose.