The coach admitted his team's rebounding was embarrassing, and the star player acknowledged the home struggles have gotten into their heads. There was no denying either after the Knicks' 95-87 defeat to Memphis Saturday, when they got humiliated on the boards and matched their home loss total for all of last season.
Mike Woodson tried to counter their matinee woes with a 10 p.m. curfew Friday night, and tried to match up against Memphis with a big lineup of Carmelo Anthony, Andrea Bargnani and Tyson Chandler. Neither worked, as they were badly out-rebounded and booed by the Garden crowd yet again. After going 31-10 at home last season, they fell to 4-10 at the Garden this season.
"You look at the rebounding, it was 55-29. That's embarrassing, especially when you start a big lineup,'' said Woodson, whose Knicks are 0-3 in noon starts. "Tyson, Bargnani, Melo, they've got to rebound the ball better. We've got to do it as a unit as well. That was the difference, then the fact that we gave so much up at the rim. … We couldn't keep them out of the paint. That was the problem.''
Woodson's big lineup was a dismal failiure, as Chandler looked winded, Bargnani (three points, two boards) looked lost on help defense and Anthony looked all alone on offense. The Knicks fell behind by 19 and cut it to four, only to fall short in the end.
J.R. Smith said he believes the loss was more about effort, not the early start.
"Our energy was fine," he said. "Nobody was in here tired or anything like that. It's about the effort — going after loose balls, getting people off the glass, getting that extra rebound. We've got to play from there. If we're missing shots early, we can't let the defense collapse just because we're missing shots.''
Anthony had a game-high 30 points, but no other Knicks starter reached double-figures. They were bludgeoned on points in the paint (60-28), with Zach Randolph (25 points, 15 rebounds) leading the way for a Grizzlies team bereft of Marc Gasol that had lost five straight. Ah, the Knicks are the salve that cures all ills.
"You can't beat nobody being out rebounded 55-29," Anthony said. "You just can't do that. … That was the whole idea to start with that matchup, to try and contain them, keep them off the boards. We just couldn't get it done."
Anthony said the Knicks' home woes had gotten into their heads.
"Yeah, I don't think it's nothing that has to do with basketball at this point," he said. "I think it's in our heads. It's a mental part of it. As individual players, we got to get out of our own mind, our own head. I don't know what you go to do, but just start having fun once again and playing basketball and not trying to worry about too many other things that's going on out there.''
After taking a 33-32 lead on Toure' Murry's driving layup midway through the second, the Knicks were outscored 18-7 the rest of the half. Playing without Raymond Felton, point guard Beno Udrih had trouble staying in front of Mike Conley, but the Knicks looked even worse when he rested early in the fourth.
They fell behind 85-66 on Kosta Koufos' layup midway through the fourth. Anthony led a furious rally to get them within four on Chandler's foul shot with 25.6 seconds left, but he missed one of two. Jerryd Bayless hit a pair of free throws and Tony Allen made a clinching basket for Memphis, with Smith (16 points) missing a late layup.
"Rebounding and defense is just effort. Zach Randolph's undersized compared to our bigs and he got a lot of rebounds. … We've got to do a better job of collectively getting guys like that off the boards,'' Smith said. "Whenever you drop games at home it's never a good feeling. Getting booed at the Garden's definitely something we don't want to happen. For it to consistently happen, it gets frustrating.''
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