Sadness for the Knicks has already arrived with their fourth straight season out of the playoff race.
The 128-105 loss of Knicks to the Clippers on Friday night at the Staples Center got to mirror so many of the games they have played in this season, especially recently, this being their 11th loss in their last 12 games.
The Knicks played well indeed for a half in the opener of the four-game trip. Post to which they were done in with another third-quarter meltdown, and they never did recover. This is exactly a similar situation to what took place on Monday, the last time they played against the Golden State. The team led 64-63 at the half en route to a loss of 125-111.
The Clippers were led by the Knicks 60-57 at the half, but later the Knicks were outscored 35-18 in the third quarter and 71-45 after halftime. They probably did not have the length or athleticism to keep up with the Clippers, who humiliated the Knicks in the fourth quarter by consistently beating them down the court for layups and dunks.
Jeff Hornacek, extremely disgusted by the situation, stated that it was a terrible defensive effort and was indeed an awful effort.
Enes Kanter, with 18 points and 14 rebounds, led the Knicks while Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 17 and Courtney Lee scored 15. Lou Williams with 21 points was one of four Clippers with at least 19 points. DeAndre Jordan scored a total of 19 points and 20 rebounds in 28 minutes. Austin Rivers scored 19 points hitting five three-pointers. Montrezl Harrell scored a total of 19 points in 16 minutes, and Tobias Harris added 15 points.
Jeff Hornacek commented that they had a layup line in the second half and it was all easy stuff. He further added that it was not even about the score, but defensively it was disappointing.
