By HOWARD BECK
Published: March 17, 2007

Steve Francis was lying face down on the Madison Square Garden court last night, reaching for his back after a collision in the lane. Just about everything that could go wrong had gone wrong on the play, including the result.

“I got kneed in the back, got smacked in the face, got my arm chopped, got hit in the throat, got my Band-Aid ripped off my thumb,” Francis said of the sequence. “I think that’s when it was a jump ball called.”

It was that kind of night for the Knicks, a mix of pain and anguish and, finally, a 92-90 loss to New Orleans when a desperation 3-pointer by Francis rolled off the rim at the buzzer.

The Hornets won in large part because of their 18 offensive rebounds and 23 second-chance points. They got 20 points from Chris Paul, 18 from David West and a combined 23 rebounds from West and Tyson Chandler.

But it was another statistic that had Coach Isiah Thomas and the Knicks perplexed. The Knicks, who lead the league in free-throw attempts, were awarded only 15 on Friday, to 27 for the Hornets.

No one specifically blamed the officials, but it seemed to be implied by every Knick who spoke. All of them cited the absence of free throws.

“We’re known for taking the ball to the basket, we got guys that take it to the basket and we’re known for putting the ball inside,” Thomas said. “Tonight, we didn’t do as good a job of getting to the foul line as we normally do. And the other team did a better job.”

The Knicks blew an 18-point first-half lead, then blew a chance to leap into seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Instead, the Knicks (29-36) slipped to 10th place, just behind the idle Indiana Pacers, with 17 games to play.

“We hate to lose any game, but this is extremely important,” said Channing Frye, who had 20 points. “I don’t think it’s a killer, but it doesn’t help our cause.”

Missed opportunities have become something of a defining trait for the Knicks. They had three chances in the final seconds, but Stephon Marbury missed a baseline floater and Frye missed from 18 feet before Francis got the ball and dribbled around the arc to find an opening.

Two nights earlier, Francis had blamed himself for a loss at Toronto, and this was his shot at redemption. He nevertheless played one of his best games as a Knick, finishing with 21 points and 10 assists, including a nice lob-and-dunk play with Eddy Curry, who had barked at Francis on Wednesday at Toronto.

Curry, who complained about a lack of touches against the Raptors , scored 18 points last night and went 8 for 14 from the field. But he went to the free-throw line twice in 42 minutes. He averages 8 free throw attempts a game.

“I was definitely struck by that during the game,” Curry said. “I’m feeling the same contact that I normally feel when I go to the line. Just not able to get there tonight.”

Paul repeatedly broke down the Knicks’ defense and went 7 for 8 from the free-throw line. Butler hurt the Knicks from the outside, making all five of his 3-point attempts, including one that gave the Hornets an 88-86 lead.

The Hornets (29-36) trailed for nearly 40 consecutive minutes, then took their first lead of the second half, 83-82, on Butler’s 3-pointer. The lead swung back and forth for the final five minutes, neither team leading by more than 2 points.

West scored what proved to be the winner, on an 18-footer with a little less than a minute to play. Curry, double-teamed by Chandler and Paul, forced an 8-footer and missed badly. When Paul missed a 14-footer at the other end, the Knicks had their final shot.

After spending two days talking about how to get Curry the ball, the Knicks seemed strangely uninterested in doing so in the opening minutes. Curry took only three shots in the first quarter. But the Knicks raced to a 14-point lead, thanks to Frye’s hot hand and the Hornets’ inability to shoot (4 for 22 in the first quarter).

But the Hornets made 27 of 51 shots (.529) in the final three quarters. Asked about the Knicks’ inability to grab rebounds and keep the Hornets off the offensive boards, Thomas said that the Knicks had done fine defensively.

“If a team gets an offensive rebound, that means you made them miss a shot,” he said. “They only shot 42 percent from the field, and we outscored them by five field goals, so the foul line really hurt us tonight, and our inability to get there.”

REBOUNDS

Steve Francis, who got into a couple heated exchanges with Eddy Curry in Toronto, took the blame for the loss, but was defensive last night. “When things aren’t going well, who else would be the donkey that they pin the tail on than myself?” he said. “It’s been like that since I’ve been here. It’s nothing.”

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Instead of figuring out why they blew an 18 point lead, couldn't find Butler on the perimeter as he rained 3's on them and couldn't keep the Hornets off the offensive glass as Curry got his usual 6 boards, they're going to blame the refs for not giving them more free throws.

Why fix the real problems when you can just blame the refs and continue to make the same mistakes over and over and over again.

God I'm going to love watching this team finish the season in the toilet.

[Edited by - islesfan on 03-17-2007 02:34 AM]

You blow an 18-point lead at home against a bad team when you know how big the stakes are, you have zero right to be bitching about the refs. Any anger you feel should be directed in one direction: at yourself.

But Isiah has his team programmed to believe that every loss can be explained away, no matter how ugly or inexcusable the loss is.

there was one jump ball late and i swear it looked like the ref tossed it over the hornets player

still a good team up 17pts should never loose.

Stevie was dumb as spit.

At home, you go for the tie. Always. Go to the hole and get fouled.

Idiot.

There should have not been the need for last minute heroics. This game was so bent for the knicks to win and they just did not execute.

Hey they blew another opportunity to win a game that they should win. You could see the tide shifting as the game went along. Part of the problem is that this team just can't stay on it's game plan. Also we REALLY miss David Lee. That guy wouldn't allow so many offensive rebounds for the other team. It's also true that as DJSUNYC said, we missed Jamal's late game heroics to save us. The knicks have a problem in that when Steph leaves the game we don't have Jamal in there to fill in and keep things going. Now when he goes out the other team takes advantage.

Our initial D was VERY GOOD, but we let them sneak in and get WAY too many rebounds. I can't really remember the last time we got outrebounded like that and the other team had so many FT's compared to us. AT HOME NO LESS. This was a weird game. I was very happy to see Frye playing well. He's still not all the way there, but he was much better. 20 pts, 7 rebs, 2 blks, 3 asts, 1 stl. That's a great game for him. He needs to have a stat line like that almost every night.

Posted by buddapaw:

As always we always seem to go away from what got us the 18 point lead in the firt place and start freelacing then the opponent gets back into the game.

Is this a coaching problem ?

Posted by buddapaw:

As always we always seem to go away from what got us the 18 point lead in the firt place and start freelacing then the opponent gets back into the game.

the key phrase is "as always." this is how the team has played for the past 4-5 years. can't hold leads. don't play defense. give up wide open jumpers. and then fans are surprised after we lose a game like that.

it's been how we've played all season long. how many "bad" losses are up and down the schedule? and then followed up with a "resilient" win...then another "bad" loss.

the losses aren't bad. the wins aren't signs of resiliency.

the team is MEDIOCRE. hence the way they play.

Posted by nixluva:

Hey they blew another opportunity to win a game that they should win. You could see the tide shifting as the game went along. Part of the problem is that this team just can't stay on it's game plan. Also we REALLY miss David Lee. That guy wouldn't allow so many offensive rebounds for the other team. It's also true that as DJSUNYC said, we missed Jamal's late game heroics to save us. The knicks have a problem in that when Steph leaves the game we don't have Jamal in there to fill in and keep things going. Now when he goes out the other team takes advantage.

Our initial D was VERY GOOD, but we let them sneak in and get WAY too many rebounds. I can't really remember the last time we got outrebounded like that and the other team had so many FT's compared to us. AT HOME NO LESS. This was a weird game. I was very happy to see Frye playing well. He's still not all the way there, but he was much better. 20 pts, 7 rebs, 2 blks, 3 asts, 1 stl. That's a great game for him. He needs to have a stat line like that almost every night.

Nixluva, I agree with what you are saying but why is Frye still hesitating to shoot? I watched most of the 4th quarter and there were 2-3 times where he had a clear wide open shot and he passed the ball. He is our shooter. Anytime he gets a wide open shot within 17-18 feet, he has to take it.

[Edited by - thegame on 03-17-2007 1:14 PM]

Posted by franco12:

Posted by djsunyc:

marbury should've called a timeout when he ripped it out of chandler's hands. there was 8.2 left on the clock.

absolutely. did they know they had a time out and how much time was on the clock?

In fairness to Marbury, he is just trying to get the ball back and get it to an open man. He saw Frye open for a wide open 16-17 footer. For Frye, that should have been a fairly high percentage shot. The fact that Marbury did not hold his head down after he missed and instead went and got that ball back showed the level of heart he played with in that game.

Posted by djsunyc:

marbury should've called a timeout when he ripped it out of chandler's hands. there was 8.2 left on the clock.

Would they really have been able to design a higher % play than a wide open 17 ft jump shot for Frye?