WASHINGTON — The Knicks kept pace with the Nets in disgracing the Mecca of Basketball, losing again Saturday night, this time to the mediocre Wizards, 98-89.
A large coterie of blue-and-orange clad fans left the Verizon Center in disillusionment after the Knicks' fifth straight loss and failure to build upon Wednesday's Indiana overtime heartbreaker. They are now 3-9 after a dirty dozen.
The Knicks' offense sputtered in the second half, when they notched just 37 points. They had little scoring balance, while four Wizards starters had nice scoring evenings — led by John Wall's 31, Martell Webster scored 19, Bradley Beal added 18 points and center Marcin Gortat pumped in 16 points with 17 rebounds.
The final indignity came with 30 seconds left, when Iman Shumpert drove for a layup and Wall slid over for a resounding block. Meanwhile, the Knicks' defense suffered too many second-half breakdowns.
Carmelo Anthony had a big, 13-point first half, but wound up with a quiet 23 on 9-of-19 shooting. A tentative Andrea Bargnani had a soft 11 points — 5-of-14 without getting to the free-throw line.
The Knicks head out West for three games in Portland, Los Angeles (Clippers) and Denver, and they're starting to get used to the losing.
Despite a strong first half, which saw the Knicks up 52-49 at the break, the club derailed in the third quarter, getting outscored by 10 in the period.
The Knicks battled early on in the fourth, getting within three before Webster nailed two straight 3-pointers. Then Beal bounced a pass to Jan Vesely on a fastbreak, with an asleep Bargnani out of position, which led to an easy dunk and an 89-80 lead with 6:13 left. Down the stretch, J.R. Smith (15 points) missed four straight free throws, which hurt chances of a comeback.
Wall made his presence known early, making his first seven shots of the half while hurting the Knicks with his speed. But the Knicks still led most of the way, by as many as nine points; they just couldn't sustain it.
The Knicks got a giant boost in the first half from Stoudemire, who scored 10 loud points in 10 minutes. He petered out in the second half on both ends and finished with 12 points in a season-high 21 minutes.
Stoudemire had lobbied for a longer stretch than the five-minute bursts coach Mike Woodson was allowed play him, saying he needed it to establish better rhythm. And the five-time All-Star surely took advantage early. Before the game, Woodson said he would look to get Stoudemire to 20 minutes of time — he finished with 22 minutes played.
The $100 million man was 5-for-5 for 12 points, scoring four buckets in the post, mostly against Nene. He threw down a hammering dunk on a fastbreak, showing his old explosiveness to go along with some nifty post moves. He also drained a step-back 12-footer after his initial post move was defended well.
The troubled Knicks had tried to work out issues before the game, as Woodson and Anthony had a sitdown at Friday's practice with the coach trying to gauge his mood.
"Melo's not going anywhere,'' Woodson said. "He's had his ups and down just like all of us have. Lately he's been playing extremely well."
Saturday night, it wasn't well enough.
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