ORLANDO, Fla. _ The Knicks aren't officially playing for more lottery combinations yet, but their chances of winning that may be better than their odds of making the playoffs.
"It's getting slimmer and slimmer," Derrick Rose said.
That doesn't mean the Knicks are going to stop trying, though.
Playing without Carmelo Anthony because of a knee injury, the Knicks fell behind 11-0 and 22-8. Just when it appeared the Knicks were trying to better their chances of getting a higher draft pick, the Knicks said no tanks.
They opened the fourth on a 23-4 run and pulled away from the Magic, 113-105. It was the Knicks' first victory without Anthony since the 2014-15 season.
The Knicks (26-38) remain in 12th place, 5 { games out of the last playoff spot in the East with 18 games to play.
Down 92-85 to start the fourth, the Knicks outscored the Magic 28-13 over the final 12 minutes. They did it without Rose playing in the fourth and newly signed rookie guard Chasson Randle playing the entire quarter.
Seven Knicks scored in double figures led by Courtney Lee's 20. Kyle O'Quinn played a huge role against his former team with 11 points and eight rebounds, all coming in the fourth. He shot 5-for-6.
O'Quinn hadn't played until there were 20 seconds left in the third and only because Willy Hernangomez left the game after getting hit in the eye by Bismack Biyombo. Lance Thomas had 17 points and Kristaps Porzingis and Hernangomez each had 14.
Randle had seven points, five rebounds and five assists in 26 minutes.
Evan Fournier's 25 points paced the Magic (23-41). Elfrid Payton finished with a triple-double: 16 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists.
Anthony missed the game with what the Knicks called a sore left knee. But his absence increased the speculation that the Knicks have begun tanking in hopes of getting in the top five of the draft to position themselves for one of the talented point guards.
But Jeff Hornacek said Anthony aggravated his knee in the fourth quarter of Sunday's loss to the Warriors when he hustled back to block a shot. Hornacek said the decision to sit Anthony had nothing to do with it being the second night of a back-to-back.
"He kind of hobbled at that point," Hornacek said. "Hopefully he'll be ready the next game.
"If it was a game that decides the playoffs, he probably might try it. It's pretty sore. When you wrench it like that and it's sore you compound it by playing and you're probably out the next two games. It's better to take this one off and get it healed."
Hornacek has maintained the Knicks will continue to try to win games, and that he's not necessarily going to play the younger guys more _ not yet at least.
"Until you're out of it and it doesn't look good, then you might take a look at that," Hornacek said. "It would probably come from management.
"If we're out of the playoffs, if we can start giving guys time, we'll start doing that. Until then, we have veteran guys here who are never going to give up until we're mathematically out of it. So we're just going to continue to play and we're going to continue to try to win games."
Reality is setting in for Rose, who called the Knicks "a super team" in the offseason. He said he's not planning to sit any games to rest, and he's got to find ways to keep his mind off what's looking like the inevitable.
"The only thing you can work on is the team, for one, keeping everyone together, and individually finding things to make sure you're sane and making sure you're not going insane," Rose said. "Reading, meditating, I watch a lot of documentaries. You got to try and distract yourself from what the reality is sometimes."
