WASHINGTON _ For most of the game, the Knicks looked like they expended all of their energy watching Kristaps Porzingis carry them the night before and celebrating his every move.
They could have used another 35-point night from Porzingis. They could have used any kind of spark.
With a chance to reach .500, the Knicks fell behind by 27 points against a team that had more issues than the Knicks have. The Knicks made a run to make it interesting late, but their two-game winning streak came to an end with a 119-112 loss to the Wizards on Thursday night at the Verizon Center.
"They kept fighting to try to get back into the game," Jeff Hornacek said. "But defensively we just fell back to where we were before. The fight, I think, defensively wasn't there."
It was the most points the Knicks have given up this season and it came against one of the worst shooting teams in the league.
But after being embarrassed for most of the night, the Knicks (5-7) finally showed life in the fourth quarter. They scored 47 points, 18 fewer than the first three quarters combined. They cut it to 110-101 on a Carmelo Anthony 3-pointer with 1:59 left, but John Wall scored 14 seconds later. The Knicks had a chance to get within seven or fewer with about a minute to go, but Porzingis missed a floater. They finally cut it to seven after Porzingis' 3 just before the buzzer.
Derrick Rose had 27 points, his high as a Knick, and Anthony added 19 and Brandon Jennings had 17. Porzingis was 7-for-16 and scored 16 one night after his career game in a win over Detroit. Wall led Washington with 23 points and 11 assists. Otto Porter Jr. had 21, and Bradley Beal, back after missing the prior three games with a hamstring injury, scored 18.
Getting back Beal certainly helped the Wizards (3-8). But the Knicks' defense also proved to be what the Wizards needed after they lost Wednesday night to lowly Philadelphia.
"They were a desperate team," Hornacek said. "We were playing a desperate game. It makes it tougher."
The Knicks chartered a train out of Penn Station instead of flying after their win Wednesday at the Garden, and didn't arrive until the wee hours of the morning. It would have been easy to use that as an excuse, but the Knicks have played bad defense even on plenty of rest.
The Wizards entered shooting 31.4 percent from deep and averaging six 3-pointers a game. They were 15-for-25 (60 percent) Thursday and overall shot 44-for-81 (54.3 percent).
The Knicks and Wizards looked like teams completing the second of a back-to-back when the game started. The play was sloppy and the execution choppy as they totaled 12 points over the first five minutes. But that didn't last long for the Wizards, who got into an offensive flow after missing five of their first six shots. The Knicks' defense has been known to do that for teams.
Washington made 19 of its next 29 (65.5 percent) and opened a 46-33 lead on a Porter three-pointer with 4:45 remaining in the half. The Knicks answered with nine straight points, six by Anthony, to close to 46-42, but they were scoreless the last 1:41 of the half and went into the locker room down 52-42. The Wizards were 8-for-11 from 3 in the half (72.7 percent).
It was a struggle for the Knicks on offense, too. As has been the case, the ball moved better when the second unit with Jennings was on the floor. He assisted on three straight baskets in the second quarter, all by Mindaugas Kuzminiskas. Jennings had six assists in the first half. The starting five had two, both by center Joakim Noah.
The Knicks missed open looks and were bothered by the Wizards' physicality on defense. The Knicks shot just 15-for-40 (37.5) in the half.
The Wizards continued to get the shots they wanted in the third quarter, with open looks all over the floor. They scored 18 in the first 5:22 and extended their lead to 70-51 on Wall's fast-break layup. Washington scored 35 in the third and took an 85-58 lead after Wall fed Markieff Morris for an alley-oop dunk.
