If the Knicks’ first Thunder test spiraled into a collapse, then this was a flop. A shellacking. And a drastic one, too.
The Knicks never possessed a 14-point lead — or anything larger than four — to hand back to the Thunder. They trailed by as many as 30. They were booed back to the locker room after an opening 24 minutes in which they managed just 43 points, their second-fewest in a first half this season. They were booed back down the tunnel after the 126-101 loss ended. Fans who packed the Garden started filling out midway through the fourth quarter.
With another chance to make a statement against the top team in the Western Conference, the Knicks didn’t even come close. Mikal Bridges missed all nine of his shots. The Knicks tied their season low for the second time in a week with just four 3-pointers. The Thunder, which entered the night with the NBA’s best defensive rating, suffocated offensive possessions and forced the Knicks to shoot just 38.5 percent from the field. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (39 points) looked like an MVP hopeful. But the Knicks made Isaiah Joe — averaging 8.1 points entering Friday — look like he belonged in the conversation, too, after a 31-point eruption.
The embarrassment continued a concerning stretch for the Knicks after their nine-game winning streak, with four losses in the last five games starting to unwind that progress. It all started Jan. 10 at Paycom Center, though before the Knicks faltered late in that first Thunder showdown, they built a 14-point lead. They were positioned, on the road, against a legitimate contender and an opponent they’d like to collide with in the middle of June, to escape with a win.
One week later, though, the opposite materialized. It took more than four minutes before the Knicks managed their first field goal against a stout Thunder defense. They collected just 17 points in the first quarter and shot 31.8 percent from the field — while making just one 3-pointer — across the opening 12 minutes. And during that time, Gilgeous-Alexander flashed the offensive instincts dotting his MVP résumé.
Isaiah Hartenstein, making his return to the Garden after inking an $87 million deal in free agency, blocked Karl-Anthony Towns early in the first quarter and finished with six points, nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks and two steals. To a degree, it served as a reminder of the Knicks’ past center depth — what Hartenstein called a “luxury” pregame — they no longer possess. But Friday, that wouldn’t have mattered.
It got ugly, too. Aaron Wiggins soared in after the Thunder missed a 3-pointer to convert a put-back shot with no one on the Knicks even close. Then, with the shot clock winding down near the end of the first quarter, Joe chucked up a deep 3 from the Chase logo and watched as the result of a broken possession sank through the net. And after Jalen Brunson hit a free throw in the closing minutes of the first half, the Knicks were late getting down the court, and Cason Wallace perched in the corner — wide open, no defender remotely positioned for a closeout — and sank a 3 to prompt boos.
Tom Thibodeau’s defense was torched for 70 points — to the tune of 60 percent shooting by Oklahoma City — in the first half, and his offense didn’t possess the necessary firepower to respond, either. At one point during the third quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander tried to drive baseline against Towns, elevated for a shot anyway and hit the baseline jumper while fading out of bounds. He then picked Brunson’s pocket to feed Joe in transition for an easy dunk before Hartenstein’s steal ended with Gilgeous-Alexander feeding Jalen Williams for a layup.
Twice in the last eight days, the Knicks stared down measuring sticks. Litmus tests. Chances to show their nine-game streak wasn’t a fluke, that the Thunder didn’t pose too daunting of a challenge, that they could survive a rough 3-point stretch, an ugly four-game run, even the lingering holes on the roster — backup center, the replacement for Hartenstein, the most obvious one — with the trade deadline a month away.
But the Knicks didn’t come close to quashing those concerns. Instead, they were greeted with recurring boos that only fueled them.
