wiz stunt sinks knicks
ASSISTANT DISTRACTS LEE LATE IN LOSS /
This was not your typical night at the Garden. And not because of elements like a franchise record or the return of Kristaps Porzingis or it being the night Carmelo Anthony’s AllStar starting streak ended. That stuff was routine compared to what Courtney Lee described on his endgame play.
Lee said Washington assistant Sidney Lowe deliberately distracted him while on the court, shouting in his ear as if he were a player. And that may have had a considerable impact on the Knicks’ 113-110 loss to the Wizards
“I was watching Carmelo, thinking he’s about to shoot the ball, but then he drives and the ball comes to me,” said Lee, who received the ball in the left corner after the Knicks sought a tying-3 after inbounding with 13.7 seconds left.
“Then I see [Washington’s Kelly] Oubre in front of me, but right here I’m hearing, ‘I got your help, I’m right here, I’m right here.’ I come to find out it’s their coach standing next to me. I’m thinking he’s a player. So I drive and try to make a play. I don’t know if the league should look into that. If that was a tactic in their defensive scheme, it worked because I thought it was a player. … It’s something they [league] need to take a look at.
“Their coach was like 2 feet away from. In my peripheral, I’m hearing, ‘ I’m here, I’m here, I’m here, I got the stunt.’ I’m think he’s a player. So I drive the ball,” Lee said. “I’m thinking it’s a player the whole time until I watched the replay. … I’ve never seen that in my whole career.”
Video replays clearly showed Lowe on the court near Lee, who dribbled away and passed over to Brandon Jennings. John Wall got on Jennings and he fumbled away the ball before the horn sounded.
“Def in i t e l y played in their favor. I’m sure it affected Courtney’s shot,” Knicks center Kyle O’Quinn said. “The league, they review a lot of stuff. … I’m sure they’ll handle it the proper way.”
Said Anthony, “He was on the court. They [had] six players on the court.”
Washington team rules prohibit assistants from speaking to the media so Lowe was unavailable after the game.
Yup, a typical Garden night that saw Anthony learning he won’t start the All-Star Game for the first time since 2009. There was the return of Kristaps Porzingis. There was a Knicks franchise record — for something good — as Anthony netted a team-record 25-point quarter in the second. There was the Knicks wasting a comeback from 16 points down. But above all to the Knicks was a loss that dropped them to 19-25.
“You’re just trying to figure it out, figure out what we’re doing, figure out a way to pull it out down the stretch,” Anthony, who finished with 34 points but missed a critical late shot, said of another close loss.
Anthony’s misfire with the Knicks down one with 18.9 seconds left led to Wall’s back- breaking, ahead-of-the-field dunk to complete his 29-point, 13-assist night for the Wizards. After Wall’s dunk, the Knicks had that chance, down three. But you know what happened.
Until the Lowe-on-Lee affair, a big topic was the end of Anthony’s run of seven straight All- Star games, including his last five as a Knick. But if you didn’t want to talk about Anthony, you could discuss Porzingis’ relief his MRI found no structural damage in his sore left Achilles. Porzingis did not start, but played 29 minutes, scored 15 points and said he felt good.
Still, the Knicks were shorthanded: an MRI on Joakim Noah showed a sprained left ankle so he sat a second straight game, but coach Jeff Hornacek said he hopes the center can play Saturday.
The Knicks defense was at times — what’s the word? — oh yeah, lousy. The Knicks surrendered 38 points in the first quarter and 34 in the third, which ended with the Wizard leading, 100-86. But the Knicks continually mounted comebacks. In the second quarter, Anthony hit 10-of-12 shots for his team record 25 points.
“It was great. Always great seeing a special guy or a special athlete like Melo score the ball,” said Derrick Rose (20 points), who gave the Knicks a 110109 lead with 48.4 seconds left. “We were living and dying with him.”
But eventually, t he Knicks died, in their eyes, with a Wizards assistant almost on top of Lee.