KNICKS CAN’T FEND OFF GRIZZLIES
Knicks blow late lead as J.R. has brain lock
MEMPHIS — The Knicks left here last season with a stinging defeat when they lost their collective cool. On Tuesday night, in their latest last-minute catastrophe in this season gone terribly awry, they lost track of Mike Miller.
Of all people. Miller has made a few big shots i n his career, mainly when he was winning two rings with the Miami Heat, but the Knicks left him wide open on the biggest play of the night, leading to their 9893 defeat.
Miller’s three-pointer with 45 seconds left completed Memphis’ comeback, as the Knicks threw away a five-point lead in the final two minutes.
“Very, very disappointing,” Carmelo Anthony said. “We kind of gave it away.”
All that was missing was the gift-wrapping. The Knicks committed plenty of miscues at both ends in the final two minutes after fighting back from an 18-point, first-half deficit.
But the biggest blunder came when J.R. Smith inexplicably left Miller to follow a cutting Mike Conley as the Knicks held a two-point lead. Sure enough, the Grizzlies (30-23) found one of the better NBA sharpshooters, who stroked his fifth threepointer on the night.
Miller’s shot ruined Tim Hardaway’s 14-point fourth quarter and 23-point night. After setting a record with eight 3-pointers in Sunday’s All-Star Game, Anthony made only one, finishing with 22 points while missing 14 of 22 shots.
Afterward, Smith didn’t exactly take responsibility for what Mike Woodson called “probably the biggest shot of the night.”
“Conley cut and somebody had to take him,” he said. “Then we had to rotate and we did a bad job rotating.” It was a nightmare game for Smith, who played for the first time with a mask to protect a broken bone in his face. He will be required to wear the mask the next three to four weeks. The mask affected his shooting, as he missed many of his shots badly, including a final three-pointer that he air-balled with the Knicks down, 94-93. But it was his startling lapse that sent the Knicks to their sixth defeat in their last seven games.
The loss, combined with Charlotte’s win i n Detroit, dropped the Knicks (20-33) 3. 5 games behind the eighthp lace Bobcats (24-30).
“It cost us,” Woodson sa id. “You ’ ve got to close it, but we’re kind of snakebitten a little bit.’’
He doesn’t have to remind his boss, Jim Dolan, who made a rare appearance on the road and witnessed another harrowing defeat from about 12 rows up behind his team’s bench.
“Anytime your owner comes and supports you, it’s fantastic to have,” said Woodson, whose job security has been a constant theme all season.
While Dolan can’t be happy with how Woodson has handled the team in several of its late collapses, his focus now is probably on seeing if he can improve the team by Thursday’s trading deadline. Earlier in the day, Anthony revealed that if Dolan and GM Steve Mills are going to make a deal, they’re going to give him a heads-up, which amounts to getting Anthony’s tacit approval. Their trade talks have surrounded upgrading their point guard spot and that was a weak area again, as Raymond Felton struggled and was benched for the entire fourth quarter. A fterward, as Anthony was heading out, he said he had not spoken at all on Tuesday w it h Dolan, so apparently there isn’t any thing imminent.