NEW YORK _ Much of Houston's sporting fan base likely was tuned into a fairly important game in another sport on Wednesday night, but for those at the Garden, there was nothing classic about this fall for the Knicks.
The Knicks wanted no part of Ryan Anderson's bloated contract in Carmelo Anthony trade talks over the summer, but the Houston forward scored 16 of his 21 points in the first half while James Harden connected for a game-high 31 overall as the Rockets halted the Knicks' three-game winning streak with an easy 119-97 blowout victory at MSG.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored a team-best 23 points for the Knicks, but Kristaps Porzingis missed 11 of 18 shots and finished with 19.
The Knicks (3-4) had won their previous three games following an 0-3 start, with Porzingis notching at least 30 points in five of the first six games in his first season as the team's No. 1 offensive option after Carmelo Anthony was traded to Oklahoma City on the eve of training camp.
Mike D'Antoni, who coached the Knicks for 3 { years before being fired midway through the 2011-12 season, has been impressed before the game with the strides his former team had been making under second-year coach Jeff Hornacek.
"The last three games they've looked really good. Porzingis has been off the charts and you just keep on going," D'Antoni said. "They're playing really well. They're playing exciting basketball and other than tonight, I'm happy for them. (Hornacek) deserves it. I know what he's gone through, and it's not easy. But they're playing very well."
D'Antoni made the playoffs just once during his Knick tenure, getting swept by Boston in the first round following a 42-40 campaign during the 2010-11 season, with Anthony acquired from Denver in a blockbuster February trade. He was fired with an 18-24 record in March of the next season, before replacement Mike Woodson led the Knicks to an 18-6 mark and another playoff berth.
"New York is great. I'm sure the Garden (Wednesday night) is going to be buzzing, and it should be. And that's what makes it special," D'Antoni said. "If we won three games in a row, they thought we were going to win a championship. I was like, wow. The buzz, you could feel it and that's why it's a special place.
"It's tough if you let it be tough, but you also, if you have management and coaches and players all on the same page, then you just live in your little cocoon and you coach and you go into the most exciting place in the world to play basketball. ... Maybe it's more intense here a little bit, but everybody's got the internet and everybody can yell and scream and give their opinion, which is cool. Just don't respond to it and listen to it, and if you don't, you can live a very happy life."
D'Antoni seems to be much happier in Houston, where Harden finished second in NBA MVP voting and led the Rockets to a 55-27 record last season before a second-round playoff loss to San Antonio.
D'Antoni nearly was reunited with Anthony over the summer, but the sides couldn't come to terms on a deal, mostly because the Knicks didn't want to take on the remaining three years and $61 million of Anderson's contract. The Rockets earlier had obtained All-Star point guard Chris Paul from the Clippers, although he missed Wednesday's game with a knee injury.
"He does a great job with the guys he has," Hornacek said of D'Antoni. "He had Steve Nash in Phoenix. He just let him go and let Steve make all these plays. Now he's got James doing it. When Chris comes back, he'll have another guy that can do it. He knows how to put guys into their strengths. When he has those guys, he has a team that's tough to beat."
The Knicks actually led by as many as eight points in the first quarter, with Porzingis netting nine. Hardaway's 3-pointer to open the second provided a 30-24 cushion, but Anderson pumped in nine points during a 16-0 run for a 40-30 Houston turnaround advantage.
Harden was just 3-for-10 in the first half, but the All-Star guard got hot and erupted for 19 in the third as the Rockets (6-3) blew the game open. His 3-pointer in the final minute of the period made it 100-71, the Knicks' largest deficit of the night.
