We warned you that the Suns would be raring to avenge their embarrassing loss to the Knicks earlier this month, and avenge they did. While the Knicks puttered around and failed to communicate on defense, Phoenix shot a super 11-21 from downtown and kept New York at arm's length by making huge open shots down the stretch. Vince Carter led the Suns with 29 points, while Steve Nash, Grant Hill, and Channing Frye all aided in the onslaught from outside.
Amar'e Stoudemire scored a season-high 41 points (and also moved closer to a suspension with his 12th technical) to lead a pretty effective Knicks offense, but offense wasn't really the issue. New York struggled to defend the Phoenix pick-and-roll all afternoon, allowing Mike D'Antoni's old team to out-D'Antoni his current team. The Knicks also failed to clean up after themselves against the league's worst rebounding team, surrendering 14 offensive rebounds and getting outworked 48-38 overall.
With two straight losses to the lowly Kings and Suns, the Knicks now find themselves in a bit of a predicament. They sit at 21-17 with three difficult road games against the Rockets, Spurs, and Thunder up next on the schedule. Unless they can find a way to score and defend simultaneously, they may be well on their way back to the .500 mark by the time they return to New York.
See Posting and Toasting for more Knicks coverage.