Knicks collapse in fourth quarter, fall to Magic 107-89

By rady
Updated: February 18, 2021

Sometimes you go through games like these. Second unit backcourt struggled with the shooting and the Knicks collapsed after halftime failing to connect four in a row and gave this one away, 89-107.

Derrick Rose and Immanuel Quickley went 1-10 and 1-12 from the field as the Knicks shot just 37.9% against the Orlando Magic. Both of them have had one of their worst nights of the season, in antithesis with their performance so far.

“Things like energy, defense, togetherness, toughness, those are things that you can control on a night to night basis. That was a couple of the things that I feel we didn’t do as a group.”

– Immanuel Quickley

Julius Randle led the Knicks with 25 points, RJ Barrett followed with 15 buckets. Barrett, who started the game very well, was a factor for New York’s effort in the first half but was limited to just 2:19 minutes in the final quarter.

Head coach Tom Thibodeau decided to go with Quickley and Alec Burks in the last period, a duo that cut Orlando’s lead to 10 points for a short period early in the fourth but the Magic responded fast and gave the Knicks no chance.

“The depth is good. It’s a plus. You get into games like tonight and it’s more you’re just searching.”

– Tom Thibodeau

The Magic were led by Terrence Ross who torched the Knicks with 30 points off the bench. Evan Fournier, who was made available shortly before the tip-off scored 19 points in his first game in more than a week after missing several games due to back spasms. Nikola Vucevic dropped 16 points and 17 rebounds.

Next-up: The Knicks (14-16) will have a break on Saturday with the Spurs game being cancelled and will host the Timberwolves (7-22) on Sunday from 7:00 pm.