OUT OF GAS
Knicks blame tired legs for ugly second half in loss to Wizards
WASHINGTON — The collapse started in the final seconds of the first half Wednesday, when the Knicks watched Washington’s John Wall chase down an offensive rebound and hit a tie-breaking buzzer beater.
The bad vibe kept rolling to start the second half as the Knicks looked absolutely disinterested and with their minds possibly on Miami’s South Beach for Friday’s game against the Heat.
After trailing by one point at halftime, the Knicks got blown out in the second half with a tiring Kristaps Porzingis held to just two points as the Wizards posted a 121-103 rout Wednesday at Capital One Arena. The 121 points were the most they have given up this season.
“It was tough mentally for us,’’ said Porzingis, who complained of fatigue. “Our energy wasn’t there. Coach said they had three days of rest. They came out fresh. We didn’t have it for the second half.’’
In losing a back-to-back to San Antonio and Washington, the Knicks have lost six of seven and are two games under .500 (18-20) for the first time since they started 1-3. They also fell to 3-13 on the road.
“The first five minutes, they came out loose and ready, their coach must’ve said some pretty harsh things in the locker room,’’ said Michael Beasley, who finished with a team-high 20 points but was culprit on the last-second play of the first half.
Porzingis had a strong first half before disappearing, scoring 14 of his 16 points before intermission. He scored his lone points of the second half midway through the fourth after missing his first five shots. He finished the night 5-of-13 from the field.
“He’s got to use his athletic ability running up the court,’’ Hornacek said. “We got a little slow there for a while.’’
The first half came to a lousy ending for the Knicks when, with less than a second to play, Beasley and even Porzingis watched Wall chase down an of- fensive rebound off a Bradley Beal missed 3-pointer and hit the buzzer-beater to break the 62-62 tie. (The halftime score was adjusted to 64-63 when an earlier Courtney Lee basket was elevated to a 3).
“Yeah, it was me, it was me,’’ Beasley said. “Final play, I thought there was less time than there was. I’ll watch film and learn from it.”
Hornacek was peeved at the incident.
“We got to finish it out,’’ he said. “I don’t know if it’s awareness of the clock. You keep playing. They thought the last shot was the last shot of the half and didn’t play it out and they get two points. I don’t know if that’s momentum but it’s two points.”
Instead of coming out to start the third quarter like rabid dogs, the Knicks were sleepwalking. The Knicks were outrun and outgunned in a 26-14 third period.
“Both teams scored [in the first half ], it was which team would play some defense and we didn’t,’’ Hornacek said. “We weren’t physical enough on the road. We have to play more physical and knock guys around. The second group did a good job battling, hitting guys going after balls. We needed the first team to do it.’’
The Wizards ransacked the Knicks in the first six minutes of the second half, reeling off a 20-5 run. Strangely, Hornacek called just one very early timeout in that stretch as the Knicks got battered by Beal (27 points) and Wall (25 points).
It wasn’t over until Beal brought down the house with a nifty move on Porzingis at the 3-point line. Beal drained a stepback over the off-balance 7foot-3 Latvian to jack the lead to 84-68. Hornacek called his second timeout after the Knicks committed six turnovers in that run.
Porzingis had a good rhythm in the first half, drawing fouls and hitting a couple of catch-and-shoots in notching those 14 points but as did the team, he ran out of gas.
“It’s a long season,’’ Jarrett Jack said. “Even the best player goes through stretches where they don’t shoot the ball at their normal pace. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to go to him as much as we are or have less confidence. Just a little rut in the season.”