NEW YORK _ Without a practice under their belts, two of the three players acquired in the Kristaps Porzingis trade on Thursday were in the Knicks' starting lineup Sunday afternoon at the Garden, which either was a reflection of the quality that the Knicks brought back or, more likely, how easy it is to get in the starting lineup on a 10-42 team.
The game was 35 seconds old when Dennis Smith Jr. swooped in for a reverse layup, the first points of the game. Then on the other end DeAndre Jordan swatted away a layup by Bruno Caboclo. It was almost enough to make you forget the Kristaps Porzingis era. In the end, though, the results were very similar to the Knicks' performances before the trade, a 96-84 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Porzingis era isn't over yet, not with his news conference scheduled for Monday afternoon in Dallas, his new home after the trade that sent the Knicks' franchise cornerstone packing. That may be the final say for Porzingis after sending thinly veiled messages on Instagram since the trade.
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