SPACED OUT
Knicks, Porzingis can’t hang with 3-point launching Rockets
Mike D’Antoni’s Rockets looked like they, too, could present the city of Houston some championship thrills in the future.
On the night the Astros, their baseball brethren, won their first World Series title, the Rockets accomplished a lesser feat, cooling off the red-hot but exhausted Knicks in a 119-97 Garden demolishing.
The Rockets have now won eight in a row at the Garden in wrecking the Knicks’ three-game winning streak and tempering the recent buzz surrounding Jeff Hornacek’s rebuilding club. Amazingly, the last Knicks coach to beat the Rockets in New York was D’Antoni himself.
The Knicks (3-4) were playing their third game in four nights and Hornacek saw fatigue as the Rockets launched 52 3-pointers, making 37 percent.
“It’s mentally tough when guys are hitting those 3s late in the shot clock,’’ said Kristaps Porzingis, who was held to 19 points.
In the second game of a five-game homestand, the Knicks fell to 3-4 and regressed defensively, but a lot of teams will struggle against Houston.
“We need to close out on guys, we were short,’’ Hornacek said. “We can’t play soft on these guys. They can shoot the crap out of the ball. It looked like that way, that we were a little tired.”
And the Rockets still don’t have their superstar point guard.
“They don’t even have Chris Paul out there so they haven’t hit their peak,’’ said Tim Hardaway Jr., who finished with a team-high 23 points. “Scary.’’
After retooling this summer by adding Paul, out another two weeks with a knee injury, the Rockets (6-3) look primed for a long spring of D’Antoni speed-ball. James Harden led all scorers with 31 points.
Porzingis, off his 38-point career night versus Denver, didn’t even look as good as the Rockets’ stretch-4 Ryan Anderson and said he didn’t feel great before the game, but wasn’t sick. Ironically, the Knicks refused to budge on taking Anderson in Carmelo Anthony trade talks and he burned the Knicks on Wednesday for 21 points.
“He’s a perfect fit for their team,’’ Porzingis said of Anderson.
Porzingis, averaging 29.3 points entering the night, notched less than 30 for only the second time this season. He was 7-of-18 with five rebounds and three assists in 28 minutes.
“He’s a great player. We had a good game plan against him — switching on pick-androlls was good for us, eliminating easy buckets,’’ Anderson said of the 7-foot-3 Latvian.
In the third quarter, Anderson faked a shot and spun by Porzingis for a layup and was fouled to make it 78-54.
Hornacek still had Porzingis out there in the final minutes of the blowout. Houston had built a 100-74 lead after three.
“I always want to be out there,’’ Porzingis said.
With Olympic gold medalists Lindsay Vonn and Aly Raisman sitting on celebrity row, the Knicks didn’t live up to the moment. The Garden crowd took their cheers when they could, roaring when rookie Frank Ntilikina harassed Harden into an airball at the thirdquarter buzzer.
“Our defense got shots and shot it with confidence,’’ Harden said.
The Knicks controlled the first period but Harden hit a buzzer-beating 3pointer to make it 27-24 after one quarter. It was all Houston in the second period, going on a 13-0 run and outscoring the Knicks 36-21 in the quarter.
Behind Anderson’s 16 points, the Rockets led 60-48 at intermission.
The Knicks were up 30-26 early in the second quarter before the Rockets went on a 14-0 tear to lead 40-30 with 6:47 left until half.
Early third quarter, the Knicks looked spent. After Porzingis missed a jumper, the Knicks didn’t get back on defense as the Rockets’ Trevor Ariza spearheaded a fast break. The former Knicks draft pick fed Clint Capela as Lee gave up on the play and the Rockets center zoomed in for an uncontested dunk.