The New York Knicks dropped their fourth consecutive game to fall to 7-10 since acquiring Carmelo Anthony a month ago. Their latest defeat came at the hands of Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic 111-99. In what is becoming a broken record the Knicks played well for most of the game leading at halftime and were tied early in the 4th. However they once again failed to stay with their competition at then end of the game and were done in by their lack of size.
Anthony dropped 24 points and chipped in a season-high 9 assists by counterpart Amar'e Stoudemire posted a season-low 13 points on 6-20 and could not stop Dwight Howard underneath. Howard continued his excellent play of late scoring 33 with 11 rebounds but that time of performance was to be expected when he had the likes of PFs Stoudemire and Ronnie Turiaf posing the only obstacles on defense.
The Knicks have been hurt by their lack of size all season and were minus-14 in that department against the Magic. I think the Knicks will struggle throughout the rest of the regular season against teams with good big men and expect an early exit in the playoffs at the hands of the Bulls or Celtics. I thinks it's fairly clear to everyone that the Anthony trade was made for the future and that the Knicks basically traded 4 quarters for 1 dollar. They were playing .500 ball before the trade (even worse if you take away their early 9-game winning streak) and should finish around .500 and in 7th in the East behind the 76ers.
I think for now Knicks fans will have to be content with the fact that they are building for the future. They need size and the auxiliary scoring sacrificed by giving up Danilo Gallinari and Raymond Felton but that can be added in the offseason. I believe the bigger question will be whether head coach Mike D'Antoni will be able to fit the pieces to together next to put together a well-oiled machine. The Knicks won't have the same makeup D'Antoni had in Phoenix and he has yet to prove that he coach any other kind of team.
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