Another day, another dollar but a win is still hard to come by. The Knicks were on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday and played a very strong game. That was until they blew their seven to ten point lead late and let OKC climb right back into the mix. The end result? The NBA's most dynamic scorer Kevin Durant has the ball in his hands with six seconds to play and nails a fadeaway three ball right in the mug of Danilo Gallinari. Game, set match. That one hurts.
Throughout the game, the Knicks held the lead and kept it at bay with valuable contributions from an array of different players. Gallinari had 18 first half points, but yet again became stale in the second half ending with only 23 total. Bill Walker and Toney Douglas registered 12 and 10 off the bench. Douglas however saw more minutes tonight than I can really remember this year notching 29 minutes of action. Amar'e Stoudemire chimed in with 18, Landry Fields 11 and Ray Felton had 10. The contributions on offense weren't the problem.
Shifting gears to the defensive side of the ball, the Knicks got absolutely punked on the glass. The Knicks gave up 22 offensive rebounds, which turn into second chance points to the Thunder. The Knicks themselves registered just nine offensive busts. The rebounding has to pick up in order for the Knicks to gain the competitive edge and not give up leads in the second half of games.
The lack of rebounding I credit to D'Antoni's decision to keep Douglas on the floor along with Felton, Walker. In the final quarter there was rarely a Fields or Chandler sighting. Chandler and Fields, both athletic move well without the ball and knock down open shots. Their ability to move within the offense also helps put them in position to get those second chance rebounds. I was bewiledered watching the game late saying to myself, "where are these guys?" D'Antoni's decisions late in the game gave the edge to OKC and they certainly exploited it. Now it's on to Monday's matchup at home against the Washington Wizards. With the Knicks going 0-3 on this mini west coast trip, the Knicks need to get something going and quick. John Wall and company come into Monday's game having notched a win over the Celtics Saturday night. Best case sceanrio is to pick it up and be ready.
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