The New York Knicks saw their nine-game win streak come to a shocking end on Tuesday night, at the hands of one of the NBA’s worse team’s, who were playing without their star.
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
The 21-46 Charlotte Hornets came into Madison square Garden minus their superstar point guard LaMelo Ball and overcame a 16-point halftime deficit to defeat the Knicks 112-105. The Knicks squandered several 15-point leads in the third quarter, and even led by as many as eight with 6:14 to go in the fourth quarter. A Kelly Oubre dunk, a Gordon Hayward three and another three from Oubre closed the gap to 98-97 and put the Knicks into a dog fight over the final 4:57, which they did not come out on top.
The Knicks played without their second leading scorer, point guard Jalen Brunson, for a second straight game. His replacement Immanuel Quickley was great in his spot start Sunday night but made just 5 of 16 shots in this one. Leading scorer Julius Randle, who was named NBA Player of the Week, shot 5 of 17. RJ Barrett had a team high 27 points for the Knicks. For Charlotte Kelly Oubre scored 27 while Gordon Hayward had 23.
Said Hornets head coach Steve Clifford, whose team lost Sunday night to Brooklyn of the second half comeback, “we’ve been good about playing from behind all year. Play better, we tried to clean up some things defensively, talked about what we could do better on offensive.” The Hornets outscored the Knicks 62-39 in the second half as the New York defense disappeared.
Of the second half collapse, Randle said, “we just ran out of gas, that’s all. We gotta get better and take care of business. We gotta take care of business, regardless.”
A disappointed Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said, “there’s a lot we can learn from tonight. We’re not going to be perfect. We didn’t play a great game. Bounce back tomorrow.
With the Big East Tournament beginning Wednesday, the Knicks hit the road going on a west coast swing for the next 4 games. Sacramento, Clippers, Lakers before finishing against the Trailblazers. It will be interesting to see how they bounce back.
Sports Editor Andrew Rosario contributed to this article.
