Anthony, Knicks search for clues amid freefall
Raptors await at ACC after 14th loss in 15 games: ‘There’s really no excuse’
NEW YORK— Every game is the same now for Carmelo Anthony. Treatment. Testing and either a thumbs up or thumbs down as to whether his sore left knee will allow him to play.
He was doubtful in Boston nine days ago, two days after sitting out in San Antonio, and then plays almost 40 minutes and scores 22 points. He follows that up two nights later with a 34-point effort against the Raptors. He tests it Thursday in Chicago and sits out.
Saturday morning, the Knicks got the thumbs up and put him on the floor, and Anthony worked his way up and down the court at Madison Square Garden for 40 minutes. And the payoff? The Knicks fell to the Phoenix Suns, 99-90, for their 14th loss in the last 15 games. They visit the first-place Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
Anthony toiled for 40 minutes on the sore knee, scoring a team-high 25 points, but once again his efforts were not enough to make up for the Knicks’ shortcomings.
“I can just see it out there on the court, that we don’t believe in ourselves to be able to go down the stretch and win basketball games,” Anthony told reporters after the game.
It started with the holes in the lineup, with coach Derek Fisher starting the day by noting it would “be easier to say who we don’t have tonight or today. Amar’e (Stoudemire) is out, J.R. (Smith) is out, (Iman Shumpert) is out, Andrea (Bargnani) is out, Cleanthony (Early) is out. Everybody else is in.”
But like most games for the 5-24 Knicks, the players who did suit up didn’t do enough to prevent another frustrating defeat.
Trailing by eight in the fourth quarter, the Knicks closed the gap to 8986 with just over three minutes remaining on a Samuel Dalembert dunk. But a free throw on the other end, a missed jumper by Anthony and a Markieff Morris jumper opened it to 92-86 with 2:26 left. An Isaiah Thomas three-pointer put the lead up to nine with 1:34 left.
“There’s really no excuse for that,” Fisher said. “That group that started the fourth quarter, we talked about if we win the fourth quarter, we win the game, and those first few minutes of the fourth quarter were probably the worst stretch of the game.”
The Suns, who had lost six straight before snapping the streak with a win in Charlotte, were led by 25 points from Eric Bledsoe and 22 off the bench from Thomas. Jose Calderon had 21 for the Knicks, hitting 5-of-6 from beyond the arc.