Knicks’ four-game winning streak ends with disappointing clunker against Jazz
NY Post
SALT LAKE CITY — The Knicks could not fully salvage a two-way clunker Saturday night, and their longest winning streak of the season is history.
The Knicks used a 17-0 run to erase all but two of a 19-point hole in the third quarter, but their shooters went cold down the stretch and their four-game surge was halted with a 121-106 loss to the Jazz at Delta Center.
“We were flat,” Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “There’s going to be nights that you don’t shoot it great. … What you can’t do, you can’t allow missed shots to take away from the energy that you need from your defense. You have to win games in different ways.
“So the nights in which you’re not shooting well, you want your defense, your rebounding and your low turnovers to carry you. … No one shoots the ball great for 82 games. If you’re not shooting well, just do other things that can help us win.”
The Knicks connected on just 39 percent from the floor, led by quiet nights from imported starters Karl-Anthony Towns (16 points) and Mikal Bridges (seven).
They combined to shoot 9-for-34 (26.5 percent) from the field, including 14 misses in 16 attempts from 3-point range.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Toumani Camara had career highs of nine 3-pointers and 35 points to help Portland beat the Brooklyn Nets 134-99 on Monday night, the Trail Blazers’ largest margin of victory this season.
The Rangers hit the mark with their on-ice ceremony honoring Mika Zibanejad ahead of his 1,000th NHL game Monday night.
PORT ST. LUCIE — For now, Craig Kimbrel is choosing Mets purgatory.
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Zion Williamson is slimmer and healthier for his trip to MSG.
Don’t blame Mikal Bridges for his paltry stats. Blame the role.
Almost a year to the day after a goaltender interference call against Kyle Palmieri lost the Islanders a game against the Blue Jackets that started their season’s death spiral, they were on the wrong end of another controversial call against those same Blue Jackets that might have had the same effect.
On the Queens side of town, the reno began in earnest almost as soon as Francisco Lindor grounded into the 4-6-3 double play. That ended a 4-0 loss before a rare sizable crowd at Miami’s loanDepot Park last Sept. 27, all of them there to witness the final death rattles of an epic baseball calamity.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is being paid handsomely for his breakout season.
Next comes the harder part. Mostly because it can’t get any easier.
It was Kids Day at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, but for the Rangers, it’s been All About The Kids for months.
PORT ST. LUCIE — From the moment he was told he needed surgery on his left hamate bone, Francisco Lindor fixated on the recovery time. Trainers provided the Mets shortstop a six-week pathway to return to play, and Lindor was determined to hit every marker.
Dylan Garand knew the number off the top of his head. He knew that, between the regular season and playoffs, he’d logged over 160 games with AHL Hartford, and he was right. Before the Rangers recalled him Friday, Garand had served as the Wolf Pack’s goaltender 165 times.
SAN DIEGO — As you may have seen elsewhere in this newspaper (and also if you haven’t deleted me yet from your social media), I have a book coming out Tuesday called “The Bosses of The Bronx.” Much of it details the 37 years’ worth of antics, winning, losing, winning again and overall mania of George Steinbrenner’s time with the Yankees.