PHOENIX — The night began with Suns coach Earl Watson, who replaced Jeff Hornacek following his firing in February, singing his former boss’s praises.
“Jeff is very creative and needs space to be creative,’’ Watson said before the Suns stunned Hornacek’s hot Knicks, 113-111, at Talking Stick Resort Arena. “He understands basketball on another level. His mind works like a fluid puzzle. You never come out with the same ATO [after timeout play]. He sees something, he’ll change it. Jeff is super creative.”
Hornacek, in his Phoenix return on Tuesday, surely was creative in keeping rookie combo guard Ron Baker in the game until 3:30 remained in regulation. And then Hornacek was too predictable in continually going to cold-shooting Carmelo Anthony for the big, final shots.
Hornacek was dealt a rotten hand when point guard Derrick Rose removed himself 10 minutes into the game with more back spasms. Hornacek plucked Baker off the bench over Sasha Vujacic, and rode him with a ragtag unit that came all the way back from a 12-point hole after three quarters — Kristaps Porzingis leading the charge with four reserves. The Knicks coach went a few minutes too far with Baker, though Brandon Jennings hadn’t excelled.
In Hornacek’s defense, he could have been thinking about a larger picture, wanting to see how much Baker had in him as the Knicks deal with an unknown situation with Rose. When the injury-prone former MVP dealt with back spasms in Chicago in 2012, the issue lingered for weeks.
The Knicks aren’t deep at the point guard spot. Chasson Randle, the summer-league standout who was hurt in training camp, is still wallowing in the D-League, aching to be signed. Baker is more of a shooting guard than a point guard, and needs to work on his ball-handling and running an offense.
Hornacek’s other miscue was again trusting Anthony late. Yes, Anthony shook off bad moments to win recent games against Charlotte and Minnesota on last-second shots. But after Porzingis fouled out with less than two minutes left in overtime and with Rose long gone, the Knicks coach could have gotten creative and tried going to the hot hand of Courtney Lee (6-of-8, 2-of-3 on 3-pointers, 14 points). Anthony finished 3-of-15 and looks worn down after playing in all 25 games.
In another interesting tactical move that worked, Hornacek didn’t play rookie center Willy Hernangomez. Kyle O’Quinn was superb again (22 points, 14 rebounds) in backing up Joakim Noah, whose free-throw shooting mental block resurfaced when he made his first two, then erred on his next five.
The way Hornacek spoke before the game, you could tell how much this game meant to him. He opened up more about his firing than he has in the past, even saying he should have quit on the spot when the Suns axed his assistants Jerry Sichting and Mike Longabardi. He also was perturbed by reports he had lost the locker room.
“I could show you the texts I got from most of the guys,’’ Hornacek said. “I think that’s what they wanted to put out there so they could make a change.’’
Sichting and Corey Gaines, who was fired after the season by the Suns, joined Hornacek in New York. Longabardi would have too, but he landed on his feet in Cleveland to help the Cavaliers break the city’s sports curse as Tyronn Lue’s defensive coordinator.
“I know they’re great coaches, so when I got the job in New York, those were the first guys I called,’’ Hornacek said. “I could look at a lot of things in hindsight. I should have probably just said, ‘You want to fire them? Then fire me too now.’’’
A little more creativity here and there, and Hornacek’s return night could have been a bonanza.