NEW YORK _ A little more than 90 minutes before tipoff of their 110-96 loss to New Orleans at the Garden on Monday night, all the Knicks starters were healthy, present and ready to play. In fact, the only player expected not to be uniform was Mindaugas Kuzminskas, who was suffering from stomach flu.
Then, seconds before the national anthem, the team announced that Derrick Rose was not with the team and Brandon Jennings would be starting in his place.
The Knicks gave no reason for Rose's absence and B.J. Armstrong, Rose's agent, did not return a text from Newsday.
The bad news continued to pile up for the Knicks when the game began. Pelicans big man Anthony Davis, who scored 40 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, scored at will and the Knicks' frustrations mounted.
Carmelo Anthony was ejected with 2:35 left in the third quarter after getting a double technical for arguing a non-call with the Knicks down by 19 points. It was Anthony's third ejection of the season. And then Kyle O'Quinn was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul of Davis with 1:16 left in the quarter.
Davis was hit so hard by O'Quinn that he flew into the stands, landing about three rows in. Davis left for the locker room and did not return for the fourth quarter, though the fact that his team had a 25-point lead might have had something to do with it.
The end result was the Knicks (17-21) lost for the eighth time in their last nine games and were booed periodically throughout the second half. Jennings led all Knicks scorers with 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting. Anthony added 18 points.
