Knicks 83 Wizards 98: Third Quarter of Doom Strikes Again

The Knicks reverted back to 2013-14 form tonight as they blew a halftime lead quickly in the vaunted 3rd Quarter of Doom. If you watched the first half, you could kind of foresee this outcome. The Knicks had 12 turnovers in the first half and looked extremely sloppy on the offensive end. They did shoot well however, until the second half. Their final field goal percentage was an ice cold 37%.

The Wizards simply looked like they were trying harder on defense than the Knicks were tonight. I’m ok when the Knicks get beat by a more talented team (not really), but what drives me insane is when they lose the game on effort. There were way too many Knicks putting forth no effort tonight and it showed when they were outscored by 17 in the third quarter. That being said, there were a couple of players who did play great tonight so let’s take a look at some positives before the onslaught of negatives.

Some Highlights…

• Jason Smith tried harder than every other Knick tonight. While he is not a very good defender, he was one of the only players I saw dive on the floor for loose balls. Couple that with active hands going after rebounds, instead of watching them fall right in front of them like most Knicks, and he had himself an ok night. Sure he only had 9 points and 3 rebounds, but at least he was giving effort.
• Iman Shumpert was the Knicks leading scorer! I don’t know the last time I wrote that sentence. He did it rather efficiently as well, going 6-11 from the field for 19 points. It is really encouraging to see him hitting that pull up mid range jump shot on offense.
• Amar’e Stoudemire tried really hard tonight as well. He led the Knicks with 12 rebounds and 2 steals, but only had 6 points. This was a perfect example of Stoudemire impacted the game in a positive way outside of scoring. He kept Nene and Marcin Gortat in check as well, which was rather surprising.

Some Low-lights…

• How bad was Carmelo Anthony tonight?! He couldn’t even score against Paul Pierce! That guy wasn’t even a good defender when he came into the league 30 years ago! But the worst part was, Melo just didn’t seem to be trying. There were multiple occasions of a rebound bouncing literally directly in front of him, but he decided someone else would get it. GRAB THE BALL! I can deal with Anthony trying to shoot his way out of a slow start, but at what point do you say, “Hmm I’m 8-23, maybe I shouldn’t jack this one up?” I love Melo, I really do, but oh my God he was horrendous tonight.
• Tim Hardaway Jr. got 7 shots up in 11 minutes. Made 2 of them.
• Cole Aldrich keeps taking these one handed throw-the-ball-at-the-basket-and-pray shots. He made one out of 6 of them. I guess that’s a high percentage for what he is trying to do?
• Shane Larkin is not a starting point guard in the NBA. He clearly wants nothing to do with the ball on offense and is not a threat with or without the ball. Great change of pace guy off the bench, but one assist in 26 minutes can’t happen.
• Quincy Acy was held out as a precaution for his injured wrist.
• Drew Gooden had 10 points for the Wizards. Did anyone even know he was still in the league?
• Walt Frazier made a comment about how back up center Kevin Seraphin must love playing against the Knicks. That’s never a good sign.

Well that was disappointing. It started off so promising and went away so quickly. That must have been one heck of a half time speech by the coaching staff.

Need to have a short term memory with this team. Knicks are back in action tomorrow night in Detroit.