Knicks show some fight, come up short late in loss to Warriors

After suffering their 10th one possession loss of the season Friday night in Philadelphia the Knicks' playoff hopes were probably put to rest for good dropping them to 25-37. Entering today the Knicks were five games out of a playoff spot with only 20 games to go and the 50-11 Warriors in town. With the season nearing its end and the lottery in the Knicks' future it would probably behoove the team to go into this year's draft with the most ping pong balls possible.

Although "tanking" the final 20 games might be in the team's best interest don't tell that to the players who are still highly motivated at getting that eight seed. With the Warriors in town today it looked like a game the Knicks would undoubtedly lose especially with Golden State coming into the Garden with a two game losing streak. The game got off to a sloppy start, but an inspired effort by the second unit and Kristaps Porzingis found the Knicks with a one point lead at the half. 

In the second half Derrick Rose played one of his best halves of the season leading the Knicks back from a 13 point deficit in the fourth to cut the lead to one. However, late turnovers and clutch buckets from Klay Thompson and Steph Curry proved to be the difference as the Knicks strong effort came up short in a 112-105 loss. Unlike Friday night's pathetic loss to a Sixer's team without Joel Embiid, the Knicks played hard for a full 48 minutes today. It didn't lead to a win, but they kept it close against a team that won 73 games last season.

It's sad that we have to compliment the Knicks every time they play hard for a full game, but that's how inconsistent this team's effort has been since Christmas. Yes the defense struggled at times and the turnovers were high, but today's performance showed what could have been had this team been bringing this kind of intensity to everygame.  

Other notes:

KP had his best game in weeks scoring 24 points with 15 rebounds and two blocked shots on 9-21 shooting. Kristaps has had a very difficult time going up against the Dubs and Draymond Green in their previous three career meetings, but today he really showed somethingThis was a very important game for his development with how he took it to such a physical defender in Draymond.

Green had dominated the previous three matchups with Porzingis and looked like he would again when KP started the game 0-5 from the field. However, something clicked this time around for KP as he found his groove with an 11 point second quarter highlighted by a nasty crossover on Green leading to a reverse layup. KP has been starting at center of late and for the first time all season he played like the stretch five fans have envisioned since they drafted him. Porzingis had one of the finest all-around games of his career scoring inside and out while cleaning up on the boards and protecting the rim. 

He was scoring inside and out and finally showed some nice moves in the post using his 7'3 frame to his advantage. The likely DPOY Green has used his aggressiveness and strength to disrupt KP in their previous meetings, but today he showed some fight we haven't seen from him in months. No one has ever questioned Kristap's effort, but he has been labeled physically soft early in his career. That kind of criticism is unfair. He's still just a kid and it's going to take some time for him to grow into the physical presence you need to be to play center in this league. Today was a great step for KP and the future of this franchise if he can continue to find that balance of scoring from all area's while playing with an edge. 

Today might've been a loss in the standings, but the Knicks won today in some capacity. Their future star showed up and proved something against one of the league's premier defenders and the team got closer to securing a top five or six pick in this June's draft. These weren't the type of victories the Knicks were hoping for at the start of the season, but at this point that's about all they can get.