CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The return of center Tyson Chandler was not the answer.
Chandler, battling back from bronchitis after missing the previous four games, appeared sluggish and Bobcats center Al Jefferson was a terror in ripping off 35 points on 14-of-20 shooting as Charlotte ended the Knicks five-game winning streak in a 108-98 cruise at Time Warner Cable Arena.
Chandler was no better than the rest of the Knicks, who were flat. Carmelo Anthony entered as the league-leader in scoring average on second legs of back-to-backs, but had a quiet 20 points on 9-of-22 shooting. Amar’e Stoudemire kept the Knicks in it with 17 points.
The Knicks (15-23) had made great strides on defense in 2014, but regressed in the Queen City, allowing the Bobcats to shoot 50.7 percent.
“We looked fatigued tonight,’’ Mike Woodson said. “We were a step slow defensively in terms of our rotations. We scored enough. Our defense was nonexistent tonight.’’
Chandler played 16 minutes, scored five points and grabbed four rebounds but wasn’t active defensively.
“He is going to be rusty,’’ Woodson said. “I didn’t play him a lot of minutes. We have to work him slowly back in.’’
Jefferson toasted all of his low-post defenders. Thursday the Knicks face a force in center Roy Hibbert in the Pacers showdown.
“We didn’t do a great job early on and by the time we started to double-team, I felt it could’ve been anyone’s game,’’ Woodson said.
After a 5-of-15 start, Anthony heated up late in the third as the Knicks got within four points, but had nothing left in the final period. The Bobcats got Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who missed six weeks with a broken hand, back and he did nicely on Anthony.
“We didn’t have much, we didn’t have it from an energy level,’’ Anthony said. “They played great. Al got it going. We seemed we couldn’t get it going ourselves.’’
In the fourth quarter, with the Knicks closing in, New York native Kemba Walker, the point guard out of UConn who finished with 25 points, hit a long 3-pointer, then another 3. Knicks point guard Beno Udrih threw the ball out of bounds, looking for Amar’e Stoudemire, and the Knicks were back trailing 91-80 with 8:19 left.
Stoudemire had the biggest gaffe of the night, when he threw a pass to the corner with no Knick within ten feet. The ball sailed into the front row, knocking over a woman’s drink.
Woodson still hasn’t ruled out Pablo Prigioni for Thursday in Indianapolis. Woodson used rookie Toure’ Murry as Raymond Felton’s backup in the first half before going with Udrih in the seocnd half.