ATLANTA – Carmelo Anthony increased his trade value exponentially on Sunday, but the Knicks’ best player and his 45 points were long gone by the time this game finally, mercifully, ended.
Same with Joakim Noah, Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle O’Quinn, all of whom fouled out during this epic, wild and exceedingly long four-overtime marathon.
“I was ready for a fifth,” Brandon Jennings would say.
If there is such a thing as a character- building loss, maybe this is it. The Knicks were already without an injured Derrick Rose and played the last two overtimes without Anthony and all four without Porzingis. It came down to Jeff Hornacek using a makeshift lineup that in the end showed incredible resolve only to suffer more heartbreak.
“It would have been a crazy story if we got it,” Courtney Lee said after the Atlanta Hawks held on for a 142-139 victory. “It’s tough. We were running out there for over an hour.”
Officially, it was 68 minutes of basketball. It is the just the 11th time in NBA history that a game has lasted at least four overtimes. Paul Millsap played 60 minutes. Jennings, who replaced Rose in the starting lineup, was the Knicks’ high man with 53 minutes.
Dwight Howard went 8-for-11 from the floor in the Hawks win.
(Butch Dill/USA Today Sports)
“I never played 60 minutes of basketball,” Millsap said.
The Knicks took 51 3-pointers, making just 18. The Hawks missed 12 of 40 free throws, including several that would have put the Knicks away much earlier than the fourth OT.
“I’m not happy with the outcome,” Lee added. “But I like the effort.”
Millsap, elected to the All Star team over Anthony, finished with 37 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists and it was his putback with 27.4 seconds left in the 68th and final minute that gave Atlanta the lead for good. The Hawks regained possession following Lee’s turnover and after erratic point guard Dennis Schroder made one free throw, the Knicks had a chance to tie it again but Lee’s corner three rattled out.
“I got a great look,” Lee said. “It just didn’t go in.”
Dwight Howard had 19 points and 13 rebounds for Atlanta.
(Todd Kirkland/AP)
Lee’s 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left in the second overtime saved the Knicks. Anthony, who had missed a pull up three with 33.9 seconds remaining, fouled out when Schroder converted a driving layup with 12.9 seconds to play. Schroder, though, missed the free throw and although the Hawks had plenty of chances to foul Lee, they defended the play straight and got burned.
Anthony scored a season-high 45 points in 46 minutes on 18 of 36 shooting. He started the game by making seven of his first 11 shots and scoring 17 in the first quarter. Anthony also had a flair for the dramatic with two clutch shots. His driving layup tied the game with 2.6 second left in regulation. Afterwards, both Anthony and Hornacek felt a foul should have sent Anthony to the line with a chance to give the Knicks the lead.
Instead, the game went to a first overtime and it was Anthony who bailed out the Knicks by making a pull-up 18-footer with 6.9 seconds left.
“Just one of those zones,” Anthony said. “Not trying to lose, trying to give ourselves the opportunity to stay in the game or even win the game, try to send it to another overtime if we can. The shots were falling at those moments for me.”
It was Anthony’s best offensive game of the season and it came amid reports of Knicks president Phil Jackson calling teams, in particular the Los Angeles Clippers, in an attempt to trade Anthony. No deal can be made unless Anthony waives his no-trade clause.
The fact that he played like this can be looked at several ways; his ability to score and make tough shots is a quality that contending teams like the Clippers could use. But a player of Anthony’s caliber shouldn’t just be given away. The Knicks need to get something of value in the form of young players, draft picks and/or salary cap relief.
“I’m just feeling good about myself, about my body, feeling healthy,” Anthony added. “Being able to just focus on basketball and playing basketball and not worrying about everything else that’s going on out there. Once I’m on the court I don’t hear (trade reports).”
The case can also be made that if Jackson is desperate to make the playoffs — which from all indications he is — Anthony is too valuable to trade. The Knicks have suffered a half dozen heart-wrenching losses this season and have a lot of ground to make up. They are 21-28 overall heading into Tuesday’s game at Washington.
Jennings finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds while Lee scored 17 and Porzingis and Justin Holiday each scored 15. Porzingis fouled out in just 30 minutes, grabbed five rebounds and was the recipient of a Dwight Howard flagrant foul as the Latvian forward dunked on the former Defensive Player of the Year.
All five Hawks starters scored in double figures. Howard finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds before being the only Hawks player to foul out. The Knicks were called for 39 fouls compared to 24 for Atlanta. Schroder, who mentally floats in and out of games, added 23 points on 25 shots with 15 assists and six turnovers. As a team, the Knicks had 12 turnovers in 68 minutes.
“I’m proud of the guys the way they kept playing,” Hornacek said. “They played through a lot of things tonight. We just didn’t come away with the victory. But again, great effort.”
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