NEW YORK — The streak is over. Unexpectedly.
Playing as if hungover from their double-OT thriller two nights earlier, the Knicks collapsed Tuesday night against the lowly Hornets, malfunctioning as an offense down the stretch of a 112-105 loss at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks (39-28) managed just eight points in the final eight minutes, sending a stunned Garden crowd to the exits in silence.
The Hornets (21-46) had lost three straight and were missing their best player, the injured LaMelo Ball, but the Knicks went through the motions while blowing a 16-point halftime lead.
It snapped New York’s winning streak at nine, one short of its longest stretch in the last decade.
“I think every game is a trap game,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “But it’s human nature, too. You let your guard down a little bit, you’re going to slip. This league is too good.”
Julius Randle, fresh off being named the Eastern Conference’s Player of the Week, shot 5 for 17 with 16 points. He looked spent. Immanuel Quickley (14 points) was also low-energy while filling in for the injured Jalen Brunson, missing 11 of his 16 attempts. The Knicks jacked up 40 3-pointers but made just 11 (27.5%).
It was the final game before the Knicks embark on a seven-day, four-game road trip to the Western Conference, while the Big East tournament invades the Garden.
The Knicks took control at the end of the first half, when they used a 23-11 run to hold their 16-point lead at the break. Quentin Grimes capped the half with a breakaway reverse lay-up with 0.4 seconds remaining, driving the crowd to its loudest cheers of the evening.
Then it was all downhill. The Knicks’ lead dwindled to two by the start of the fourth quarter,
Before the game, Thibodeau announced Brunson would sit with a sore foot, the same injury that sidelined the point guard in Sunday’s double-OT thriller over the Celtics. Thibodeau, who is Bill Belichick-ian in his lack of injury updates, wouldn’t provide a timetable but said Brunson will travel with the team on its four-game road trip that begins Thursday in Sacramento.
“We love our depth. The next guy, get in there and get it done,” Thibodeau said. “We have more than enough to win.”
Quickley, who dropped a career-high 38 points against the Celtics, started at point guard again Tuesday but couldn’t duplicate the magic. Hornets coach Steve Clifford said Brunson’s absence creates a domino effect that negatively impacts the Knicks.
“I think they’re a lot different because you don’t have both of them,” Clifford said. “It’s not one or the other. Forty-eight minutes is a long time. So it does impact their depth. He was great the other night (in Boston). He started off well. And then the end of the game and overtime. He had that stretch where he scored seven straight points and he’s played like that in stretches like that before. I would say Jalen to coach against is obviously one of the two guys you concentrate. But certainly Quickley is capable of a big night and they have other guys, too.”
The Knicks are now 3-3 without Brunson, the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Month.
