LONDON _ It was a foreign land for the Knicks, but all of the familiar markings were in place. The language was basically the same, if the accent and phrasing was slightly different. And a big lead built by the excitable young players only to have it disappear made it feel very much like home.
Controlling the game for much of the night and seemingly surviving a late collapse, the Knicks held a one-point lead as the clock was ticking down to the final second. Thomas Bryant rolled to the rim after he took a pass from Bradley Beal and tossed up a shot near the rim that was swatted by Allonzo Trier. But the officials quickly ruled it goaltending with four-tenths of a second left, giving the Wizards a 101-100 win over the Knicks.
The Knicks had a final shot as Kevin Knox inbounded to Emmanuel Mudiay, who had to flip up a turnaround shot at the left elbow that never reached the rim. The loss was the Knicks' fifth straight and 13th in the last 14 games, dropping their record to 10-34.
After Noah Vonleh pushed them back in front with a short hook shot in the lane with 33.7 seconds left, a miss by Washington gave the Knicks a chance to put the game away. But Mudiay, who had carried them much of the game, lost control of the ball as he was dribbling the clock down. Knox ran it down and forced up a wild shot that caused a 24-second violation. That gave Washington one more chance with three seconds left, setting up the final sequence.
Leading by as many 19 points the Knicks saw it disappear as their offense disappeared late and Bradley Beal took over. First, he did it with his scoring, leading all scorers with 26 points, and then with the key feed to Bryant.
While the game was a Wizards home game on the schedule it was a pro-Knicks contingent filling much of the sold-out O2 Arena, every Knicks basket drawing huge applause from the crowd _ particularly when it came on rare occasions that the points came from European players Frank Ntilikina or Mario Hezonja.
The closest to an overseas star for the Knicks on this night came in the form of Mudiay, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo before his family escaped to America when he was still a small child. Mudiay hit nine of his first 10 shots, finishing 11-for-18 and scoring 25 points.
The Knicks led nearly the entire game, building a 10-point lead after the first quarter and stretching it to as many as 19 points in the second quarter before settling for a 63-53 halftime advantage. Much of the early damage was done by Luke Kornet, who had 12 first-quarter points and Damyean Dotson, who hit his first five field-goal attempts.
This was the third time the Knicks played in the NBA London game. While this was the first time in England for many of the players, the NBA is constantly looking to expand the global brand and there has been rumors that the league could add a game in France next season.
"We recognize that Europe is a huge market, that there is enormous interest, and many of the other European markets have a stronger basketball affinity even than they do here in England," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said before the game. "It's been a marriage in part of convenience, but it's been very successful for both parties. When we announced this game and put tickets on sale they sold out in less than an hour. So there's no issue whatsoever in terms of demand."
