Knicks drop fifth straight after losing 115-103 to Magic at the Garden

New York’s last win came 10 days ago, before Christmas, when they beat the Magic by 11 points. Since then, the Knicks went on a four games road trip and returned to the Garden empty-handed.

Last night, on the same floor and against the same team that they got their last W, New York played one of their worst defensive games of the season, allowing Orlando to score 115 points.

Without Kristaps Porzingis, but with the other pieces back in action the Knicks did little to stop the Magic dropping 67 points at half time. Late in the fourth quarter, they were trailing by 18. Jodie Meeks, who started for Evan Fournier shot 7-9, including 3-3 from long distance to finish with a game-high 23 points.

Jeff Hornacek was upset after his team allowed their opponents to shoot 15-31 from behind the arc and played little defense, and promised to shake things up.

“I don’t think our guys aren’t trying. Maybe we’re just not capable of it. That’s what we’re going to have to figure out. Maybe we have to play some of these other guys. We might have to mix the lineup somehow.”

– Jeff Hornacek

New York got slight boos in the final minutes of the game as they dropped to 10th place in the Eastern Conference, after being third not long ago.

A photo posted by New York Knicks 🏀 (@nyknicks) on Jan 2, 2017 at 6:51pm PST

Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 19 points and Derrick Rose added 18. Joakim Noah scored 8 and grabbed 10 boards while Courtney Lee contributed with 14. Lance Thomas who made another start scored 10. Brandon Jennings led the bench with 12 points and his buzzer beater at the end of the first quarter was featured in NBA’s handle of the night.