The Knicks couldn’t conjure up another final dose of magic Monday night against the Wizards.
One game after storming back for a stirring overtime victory over Milwaukee, the misfiring Knicks quickly turned a double-digit lead into a 15-point hole in the fourth quarter before another frantic comeback bid ultimately fell short in a 110-107 loss at the Garden.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 20 points, Damyean Dotson had 17 and Enes Kanter added 13 points and 16 rebounds, but the Knicks (8-17) could not withstand shooting just 27.3 percent from the field in the third quarter and 30.4 percent overall after halftime.
“We didn’t run anything in the third quarter. Couldn’t get us into any offense,” David Fizdale said. “Credit to them, they really took us out of our stuff. They turned up the defense. They took that third quarter from us.”
Bradley Beal led all scorers with 27 points, John Wall contributed 18 with 15 assists and Kelly Oubre netted 21 off the bench for the Wizards (10-14).
Rookie Kevin Knox missed 8-of-11 shots for just eight points after tallying a career-high 26 in Saturday’s OT win over Milwaukee, and second-year guard Frank Ntilikina did not play for the second straight game for the Knicks, who will visit Boston on Thursday.
“It was definitely their defense. That’s something we’ve got to get better at,” Knox said. “They did a really good job of making our guards pick up the basketball and stuff like that. We have to do a better job of helping our point guards out getting open. … But it was definitely their defense. I give them credit for that. They came out and kind of froze us in the third quarter.”
Courtney Lee made his first appearance of the season after missing the first 23 games with a neck injury and not getting off the bench Saturday against Milwaukee. He finished with seven points in 16 minutes but clanked a wide-open layup with 2:07 remaining.
“Too much adrenaline. I was moving fast. My legs were burning, so I didn’t trust them to try to dunk it,” Lee said. “But I was going fast so I laid it off the backboard too hard. All in all I’m just happy to be back out there and be able to play again. What other way to welcome me back besides with a blooper.”
This game turned into another one of those for the Knicks, who led by as many as 11 points in the second quarter, with Hardaway netting seven late points for 15 in the half. They carried a 61-52 advantage into intermission, but came out shooting blanks in the third — missing 19 of their first 22 shots — to allow the Wizards to erupt for a 28-8 binge and an 86-80 turnaround lead entering the final 12 minutes.“I think we just didn’t come out ready, we didn’t have that energy,” Kanter said. “We lost the game in the third quarter.”
The Knicks fell behind by 15 with 3:33 remaining before netting the next 12 points, including two 3-pointers by Dotson. But Wall connected on a 3 from the right side for a 110-104 game with 11 seconds left to seal it.
“That’s us. That’s our team,” Fizdale said of the Knicks’ late run. “As long as there’s time on the clock, our guys will fight to try to win the game.
“It’s crazy, because if you look at a couple of things down there — the layup, some free throws — and who knows what could have happened. But at the end of the day, that third quarter was the death of us.”