Last night, the Knicks traveled to Los Angeles to take on the Lakers. And the expectation was that they would have no problem knocking off the Lake Show to pull within two games of the final spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. After all, the Lakers are pretty bad this season, and to make matters even worse, they were without their starting center Pau Gasol last night, who was hospitalized earlier this week with vertigo.
However, things didn't go as planned. After jumping out to an early lead, the Knicks fell behind by eight points heading into halftime. And then, the Lakers absolutely exploded in the third quarter, setting a new franchise record by scoring 51 points in the quarter en route to a 127-96 win. After the game, Knicks new team president Phil Jackson, who was in attendance at the Staples Center, ripped the Knicks for being so bad during the second half of the contest.
"It was awful, huh?" he asked reporters as he made his way out of the Staples Center following the blowout. "Fifty-one points. When it's 35 points, you start to get worried. When it's a 51-point quarter, that's really awful."
Jackson wasn't the only one who was upset about the loss, either. Knicks coach Mike Woodson also chimed in.
"All hell broke loose," he said when asked about the third quarter. "That's just unacceptable."
And people took shot after shot after shot after shot after shot at the Knicks on Twitter:
So my Knicks let the Flint Tropics drop 127 points on them last night...
The Knicks are horrible. Why are they always on national television?
My lakers are smacking the Knicks... Cuz even when we suck we don't suck as much as the Knicks
How TF do you score 51 points in 1 quarter? Lmaoooo the Knicks are horrible.
Never forget: the 2013-14 Knicks are terrible.
The Lakers were on fire during the game and were hitting just about everything they put up during the second half (they shot 71 percent in the third quarter). So even if the Knicks had played better D, there's a good chance they still would have lost. But last night was a reminder that Jackson has a ton of work to do in the future to turn his new team around.
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[via Sports Illustrated]
