The Knicks lost their fourth straight game when the fell to the Golden State Warriors, 105-96, on Tuesday night.
Here are the takeaways….
The short-handed Knicks put out a starting five of Alec Burks, Julius Randle, Evan Fournier, Nerlens Noel and Derrick Rose as the guards to start this game. With Stephen Curry needing two three-pointers to break the all-time record, every three-point attempt had the MSG crowd on their feet. Despite that, the Knicks kept up with the high-powered offense of the Warriors. Four and a half minutes into the first, Curry would hit his second three-pointer of the game to break the record. After the timeout that allowed the crowd to celebrate Curry’s accomplishment, the Knicks went on a 7-0 run to take an early lead. Both teams went back and forth and finished the quarter tied at 24. Rose led the Knicks with 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting.
The second quarter started with Miles McBride hitting a three-pointer. The Knicks’ deep bench players would get time to play in this frame like Kevin Knox II who scored five points in the second. The Knicks would go on small runs to take a 46-38 lead deep into the quarter. The Warriors went on a 9-2 run to cut the Knicks’ lead to 48-47 at halftime. The Knicks shot just 33 percent to the Warriors’ 44 percent.
Both the Knicks and Warriors start the third quarter cold. Neither team making a shot for the first three minutes with even Curry missing wide-open threes. The Warriors would go on a 7-3 run to take a small lead. Randle made the team’s first shot four minutes into the frame. Randle would actually keep the Knicks in this game, scoring 12 of the team’s 16 points in the third quarter. The Warriors would go on a 15-5 run to take a 71-64 lead into the final frame. The Knicks did end the quarter with a Mitchell Robinson alley-oop from Immanuel Quickley.
The Warriors’ Nemanja Bjelica started the fourth with a three-pointer, but Quickley answered with an and-one. Both teams would trade shots like this for a few possessions until the Knicks went on a 7-0 run. The Warriors answered with a 8-2 run to push the lead to double digits. Randle scored 13 points in the fourth quarter including hitting three three-pointers. Whenever the Knicks would chip away at the Warriors’ lead, Golden State would answer until time ran out.
Randle led all scorers with 31 points, 25 of those coming in the second half. He shot 48 percent, but hit 5-of-8 from three. Rose, Quickley and Burks were the only other Knicks to score in double figures. As a team, the Knicks shot just 36 percent.
Highlights
What’s next
The Knicks start a two-game road trip when they travel to Houston to take on the Rockets on Thursday at 8 p.m.