NEW YORK _ The Knicks had just completed a road trip, returning home to Madison Square Garden to face the Phoenix Suns, who arrived with the worst record in the NBA.
And early in the fourth quarter the crowd was in full voice, but it was not the welcome home the Knicks had hoped. Instead, the Garden crowd was loudly booing the Knicks every move.
The Knicks could claim fatigue from the road trip and returning to a back-to-back game or bemoan that they lost their leading scorer, Tim Hardaway Jr. to a sore right heel shortly before the game began. But there was no excuse that the crowd correctly would find suitable to remain positive. After leading by seven at halftime, the Knicks fell, 128-110, with the boos continuing to the final buzzer.
The Suns entered the game with an NBA-worst 6-24 record, but after losing 10 straight games they won their last two over Dallas and Minnesota. Like the Knicks, they are plotting for some future product. Phoenix started three rookies Monday _ Deandre Ayton, who was the No. 1 overall pick; Mikal Bridges and D'Anthony Melton. And now, with the win the Suns were just one and a half games worse than the Knicks in the race to the bottom.
The Knicks three rookies started together briefly this season, but two of them, Mitchell Robinson and Allonzo Trier, were sidelined with injuries Monday, along with Damyean Dotson and Hardaway. While the Knicks got 17 points from their other rookie, Kevin Knox and a team-high 32 points from Emmanuel Mudiay, it was not nearly enough to make up for the defensive deficiencies.
Devin Booker scored 38 for the Suns while T.J. Warren, who had 17 in the third quarter, scored 26. Ayton had 21 points and 13 rebounds. Jamal Crawford came off the bench to hand out 14 assists.
Fizdale had spoken optimistically before the game about the Knicks defense, hoping that they were beginning to get it together.
"More possessions with focus where it was less mental breakdowns," Fizdale said. "I felt like our level of competition was more consistent throughout. Hopefully we can build on that. I want to see us get off to a good start again, see if we can put that together back to back. And then consistently play hard throughout the game offensively and defensively."
He couldn't have been happy with what he saw on this night. The Knicks surrendered 28 points in the first quarter, 31 in the second and then 41 in the third _ allowing the Suns to hit 72.8 percent from the floor in that third quarter. The Knicks were tied at 79 with just over five minute left in the third quarter when Frank Ntilikina missed a pair of jumpers and the Suns got a dunk from Josh Jackson on the other end. That triggered a 21-4 run to end the quarter.
In the last few games Fizdale has tried to turn to a zone defense to make up for some of the individual struggles. On this night, it didn't work.
"I took kind of a big step back because we have so many young guys, including Kevin and Mitchell and Zo and said maybe mixing in a little bit of zone might put them back into a level of comfort," Fizdale said. "You do see some comfort out there. You do see a level where all of these guys have played more zone than they have probably played man up to this point in their basketball life. So you do see with Kevin and a few of the young guys, they're much more comfortable in that environment right now until they can get ahold of these NBA sets and all of these great actions these coaches run.
"We still put more time in on our man and the fundamentals of our man defense. But if you ask any coach in the league right now, really all this is, whatever everyone's doing, is a big switch. The zone is a big switch. Just depending on what your teaching points are and things like that, most teams are playing zone and people don't even realize it."
Phoenix stretched the lead to as many as 23 points in the fourth quarter before the Knicks embarked on a too-little, too-late run to close within 13.
