WHAT A 'ZINGER
Knicks road woes worsen in loss to league-worst Bulls
CHICAGO — If the Knicks can’t beat the NBA-worst, travel-fatigued Bulls on the road, whom can they beat away from the Garden?
A wild rally from eight points down in the final 2:24 got the Knicks into a tie at 102, but the Bulls squeaked it out when Kris Dunn was fouled by Courtney Lee with 2.4 seconds left, and he won it from the free-throw line.
Kristaps Porzingis’ desperation 3point heave off the inbound rimmed out, sealing a 104-102 loss at United Center, leaving Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek angrier than he’s been all season.
The Bulls were on the second night of a back-to-back and had major travel woes after their Friday win in Charlotte, unable to fly back until Saturday afternoon.
The Knicks fell behind by 13 points in the first quarter — and that’s all Hornacek cared about.
“First of all, that’s worthless,” Hornacek said of the late rally. “The game was lost way in the beginning. That team had travel issues. We come out at the start not ready to play and let them get out to a big lead. There’s no excuse for that. We talked about that — to hit them hard at the beginning of the game. Instead, we were floating out there.”
The Bulls, after winning a back-toback set, still have the NBA’s worst record at 5-20, but the Knicks own the worst road record at 1-8.
Porzingis had tied the game with a mid-range jumper with 7 seconds left, but he was hardly dominant enough to make up for Tim Hardaway Jr. sitting for a fourth straight contest. The 7-foot-3 Latvian was sloppy down the stretch. He failed to win his duel outright with European rookie forward Lauri Markkanen, who finished with 15 points on 7of-13 shooting.
Porzingis wound up with 23 points but Summary Page 63 was 10-of-25 from the field and took the blame afterward.
“I feel like I let my teammates down and I’m not talking about the final shot — in general,’’ Porzingis said. “We and I can’t start the game like that and I take full responsibility for this loss.’’
Regarding his last miss from 3-point range, Porzingis said: “Most of my shots felt good. They were too short. [Maybe] my legs. It was short. It sucks.”
Down the stretch, Porzingis committed back-to-back turnovers that appeared to knock them out for good. Porzingis picked up a traveling violation with 2:58 left. Markkanen then scored over Porzingis for a layup.
Porzingis got stripped by Dunn, who came over to help. Dunn fed David Nwaba for a fast-break dunk and an eight-point lead with 2:24 remaining. Even then, the Knicks still roared back with Lee leading the surge.
Lee’s complaint at his last-second foul call was hollow as Dunn’s miss was rammed home by Robin Lopez anyhow.
Before the Knicks fell below .500 again at 12-13, Knicks general manager Scott Perry acknowledged the road woes.
“With a young team, that’s the last component — learning how to win on the road,” he said.
The loss overshadowed a restorative performance by French rookie point guard Frank Ntilikina, who scored 10 points with seven assists on 4-of-6 shooting.
“The only way you can win on the road in this league is to play all 48 minutes not just the end of the game,” said Hornacek, whose club hosts Atlanta on Sunday. “Some teams in this league can coast through some road games. We’re not one of those teams.”