KNICKS CATCH COLD
Porzingis off mark as Manu & Spurs heat up at Garden
So much has gone right, so much magic and energy have returned for the Knicks this season — at least inside Madison Square Garden.
But one play exemplified why this wasn’t destined to be another fortuitous night for them on Tuesday.
Manu Ginobili, who garnered more chants and cheers than the home team in what could be his final career visit to MSG, intended an alley-oop pass near the end of the third quarter that dropped into the hoop for a three-point basket — and Jeff Hornacek’s fading team couldn’t overcome another double-digit deficit in the fourth for a 100-91 loss to the Spurs.
“There are a lot of things we can get better at,” Kristaps Porzingis lamented after the Knicks’ fifth loss in six games. “Teams are starting to figure out more of what we’re doing, what plays we’re running and that’s why we need to execute them even better and maybe we need to find some different options and so on, maybe mix it up a little bit. In a game like this, there’s so many things you can look at and get better at. That’s because we’re playing against a good team.”
Porzingis missed 14 of 19 shots and finished with 13 points as the Knicks fell to 15-7 at home — along with a 3-12 mark on the road — to slip back below. 500 (18-19) overall entering a three-game road swing beginning Wednesday in Washington.
“We’re younger than them, but they just played harder than us,” Enes Kanter noted. “They played with more energy and we just didn’t have it tonight.”
LaMarcus Aldridge netted a game-high 29 points, Kawhi Leonard added 25 and Ginobili finished with 12 in 23 minutes off the bench for the Spurs. The five-time NBA champions (since 1999) have the thirdbest record presently in the loaded Western Conference at 26-12 — even with Tim Duncan two seasons into retirement and longtime stars Ginobili (40) and Tony Parker (35) moving closer to the end of their stellar careers.
“I’ve thought about that,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich admitted before the game. “I still miss Timmy. Manu will go at some point, maybe the next five, six years. Tony thinks he’s going to play for 10 more. These contracts are pretty good … A lot of the guys have been around for a while. I’m the guy that should probably get the hell out of there so they can start over again and do something better.”
With large patches of the MSG crowd boisterously chanting “Manu” — and “Ole, Ole, Ole” — for the Argentina-bred Ginobili late in the second quarter, he obliged by burying a three from the left side during a 13-1 run that put the Spurs up, 5246, before Lance Thomas nailed a corner three at the buzzer for a three-point game at intermission.
Porzingis’ short jumper pushed the Knicks ahead by two early in the third, but a couple of threes by Leonard highlighted a 19-4 run for a 76-63 San Antonio lead late in the period.
In the final minute of the third, Ginobili lobbed a pass intended for Aldridge at the rim, but the ball went directly into the hoop, even if neither the Knicks nor the referees initially saw it go through.
As the Knicks headed up the court, Popovich and the Spurs’ bench erupted to get the play reviewed. It eventually was ruled a three-point bucket for Ginobili, giving the visitors a 14-point cushion entering the final period.
“I’ve been working on it for a long time, I finally was able to take it,” Ginobili joked. “It went so clean that nobody saw it and I went crazy, because once you make a shot like that, you want it to count.”
Michael Beasley led the Knicks, who never got closer than seven points thereafter, with 18 points.
“We got stagnant,” said Hornacek, who was assessed a technical foul in the fourth. “We have a tendency to say, ‘Oh, KP’s our guy, let’s throw it to him.’ That’s when we end up standing around. We’ve just got to continue to work on that, get better.
“These experiences of playing, especially a top team like San Antonio — these guys, it’s a great team. They’ve been through playoffs, championships. These guys, they know how to do certain things. That’s where we want to try to get to at some point.”