ROYAL FLUSH
No-show Knicks crowned by Kings in embarrassing Garden beatdown
Knicks coach David Fizdale was broiling.
No excuses this time. They weren’t on the road. There was no lead held in the fourth quarter. There was no 2018-19 playoff team on the court facing them. And there was no defense.
Fizdale’s Knicks just stunk out the Garden because, just maybe, this mediocre, star-less roster has little hope of making a playoff run.
With boos erupting across this sad Sunday night, the Knicks fell behind by 20 points early in the second quarter, got down by 32 in the third quarter. There was even a couple of low-grade, very shortlived “Fire Fizdale’’ chants from a frustrated few as the Kings rolled to a 113-92 victory to drop the Knicks to 1-6.
Fizdale gave his harshest critique of the team’s performance this season.
“Just a crap game,’’ Fizdale said. “We did nothing right. To keep it in perspective, we’ve played six crap quarters this whole season. Three of them were tonight. We weren’t connected tonight at all. Offensively and defensively, we weren’t tied together and it was really disappointing.”
It was the Knicks’ first loss this season to a team that didn’t qualify for the playoffs last season. The 2-5 Kings were a step down in class after facing Boston on the road and losing in the last seconds on Friday.
“It comes as really disappointing right after a really great effort in Boston,’’ Fizdale said. “I thought this game we were going to take a big step forward. Instead we came out in the mud and never really got out of it.’’
Despite their tough early schedule, the Knicks could always hang their hat on an improved defense — but even that was not evident Sunday.
Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox danced all over the Knicks for 24 points and six assists as all five Sacramento starters finished in double figures. Fox punctuated the night with a mid-court strip of Barrett and fast-break tomahawk jam.
“We just didn’t have it,’’ Knicks center Bobby Portis said. “We didn’t play our brand of basketball.’’
Marcus Morris led the Knicks with 28 points and Barrett added 22, but it was another quiet night for Julius Randle — who was 4 of 13 for eight points.
Fizdale gave Portis the start over Mitchell Robinson at center to create better spacing for Randle and it didn’t work. Portis started the game 0-for-5 as Fizdale’s fifth starting lineup in seven games wasn’t the answer.
“Bad game, not really much I can say about it,’’ Randle said. “Can’t really learn from it. We weren’t five men as a unit. We weren’t trusting each other. It’s a setback and it’s discouraging. You don’t want that after we had two extremely hardfought games on the road to give ourselves a chance to win. Tonight we didn’t give ourselves a chance at all.’’
The Knicks’ free-throw shooting still resembles a bad high school team at this stage as they were 20 of 31 from the line. Barrett has been a major culprit, going 5 of 9.
“They came out and punched us in the face right in the beginning,’’ Barrett said. “They did it all game. Long credit to them.’’
The night started off poorly with starting point guard Frank Ntilikina picking up two quick fouls and heading to the bench after four minutes. Ntilikina played just 15 minutes and scored two points. The Knicks are shorthanded on point guards as they await the returns of Dennis Smith Jr., whose stepmother’s funeral was Sunday, and the injured Elfrid Payton.
Fox, drafted No. 5 in the same 2017 draft class as Ntilikina, was too quick and too good. The Knicks switched on everything and Robinson, a center, wound up guarding him on the perimeter on two occasions that didn’t go well
Fizdale said Ntilikina’s foul trouble hurt but added, “I don’t want to sit up here and act like I know exactly what it is because they stung us in every way.”