Jesus Christ how did they lose this game? Even after watching the whole thing you sit back and try to comprehend. They led the whole game — up by 19 in the 1st half. Cruising. And Washington did NOT dig in for the 4th — their defense was not good and they kept turning the ball over. The Knicks just turned it over more. Missing shots. Unforced turnovers. Hero ball. No more passing. The Knicks had a 10 point lead with 10 minutes left. They didn’t score for the first 7 minutes of the 4th quarter.
Finally Emmanuel Mudiay hit a layup with 5 minutes left. The game went down to the wire; Knicks took the lead, but with 3.3 seconds left, Washington inbounded and Allonzo Trier swatted away a layup at the buzzer but was called for goal tending. With 0.4 seconds left (Trent Tucker rule) Knicks got off one final Mudiay desperation shot but lost.
Who Played Well
Luke Kornet (16 pts on 5-11) was the hero of the 1st quarter — hitting 4 (four) 3-pointers, and Emmanuel Mudiay was the hero of the 2nd quarter — at one point he was 9-10 in the game, and finished 11-18 for 25 points.
But part of the Knicks’ 4th quarter collapse was Mudiay trying to be the hero at the end. On four straight possessions in the final 5 minutes he drove to the basket himself — not even looking for a teammate. He missed the first 3 times (a missed jumper, missed layup, and turnover). Finally on the 4th drive he got fouled. Hero ball. A minute later he hit a clutch 3 to make up for it, and made some tough shots in the final 2 minutes. But he wasn’t exactly setting up teammates or orchestrating a team offense.
Allonzo Trier is back; looked good. Damyean Dotson and Trier had almost identical games: both had 13 points on 5-8 shooting — Dotson in 25 minutes, Trier in 23 minutes. Noah Vonleh played well, including excellent defense at one point in the final minute against Bradley Beal, forcing Beal into a turnover.
Birthday buckets. pic.twitter.com/r2J7hUvnTh
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) January 17, 2019
“Skinny Shaq” Was Back
Mitchell Robinson — knicknamed “Skinny Shaq” by Trey Burke & teammates this summer — was back for the first time in a month. And he looked good. At one point we tweeted:
“Nice sequence near end of 3rd:
- Mitchell Robinson BLOCK
- Washington gets ball back
- Ntilikina good D; Mitchell Robinson challenges shot — shot is short and Ntilikina tough sweeping Rebound
- Knicks other way: Mitchell Robinson with the offensive board and SLAM”
Knicks thought so too — tweeting a video of the sequence:
That block 😱, that dunk 😮 pic.twitter.com/ZW7Yf58kjz
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) January 17, 2019
Kevin Knox was misfiring (2-11 for 5 pts) as was Mario Hezonja (0-4, 0 pts). Tim Hardaway Jr (2-7, 2-4 from 3, 8 pts) hit two 3’s but made errors, including two turnovers in the final quarter — one on a fast break ahead of the field 2-on-1 where he simply lost it out of bounds. He is supposed to be on the trading block but his stock goes down everytime he plays.
For Washington Bradley Beal was 10-29 — Knicks kept him in check; and Trevor Ariza kept missing (2-11). Oliver Porter Jr played well as did Tomas Satoransky.
Knicks Coughed This One Up
Knicks seemed to be the more talented team, especially with John Wall out. But they just absolutely coughed it up in the 4th quarter.
The boxscore:
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