New York Knicks’ Miles McBride (2) dunks the ball in front of Golden State Warriors’ James Wiseman (33) during the second half at Madison Square Garden in New York on Tue Dec 20, 2022 (AP News photo)
By Jessica Kwong
NEW YORK, NY. — The short-handed Golden State Warriors (15-17) suffered a 132-94 blowout loss to the New York Knicks (18-13) at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, in the first of a back-to-back in the Big Apple.
New York scored the first eight points and never trailed the Warriors, who were without Stephen Curry due to a left shoulder injury, Andrew Wiggins with a strained right adductor, Andre Iguodala who has not played yet this season, and others.
The Knicks finished the first quarter ahead 33-25. The Warriors got within 35-33, but Quentin Grimes hit a triple with 4:17 left in the second quarter to boost the Knicks up 60-45. Golden State trailed 69-56 at the half.
“The Knicks are in a good groove right now. They totally outplayed us,” said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. “We sank tonight. We’re trying to hang in there and we will. Another game tomorrow.”
With 5:37 to go in the third quarter, Mitchell Robinson scored a couple of free throws that extended New York’s lead to 88-67. Then Immanuel Quickley’s free throws with five seconds remaining brought the Knicks to 100 points. They led 100-81 at the end of the quarter.
The Warriors never closed the gap in the fourth quarter, and the Knicks won their eighth straight game to improve to 18-13.
“We probably could’ve did a better job of making them feel our presence on the three-point line today,” said Warriors guard Jordan Poole. “We got a couple of easy looks early and it’s hard to stop a team once they get going.”
Poole was the leading scorer for the Warriors, with 26 points. Jonathan Kuminga scored 13 points and Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Ty Jerome had 11 each.
The Warriors (15-17) finish their six-game road trip against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday. Tip-off is at 4:30 p.m.
Golden State will be even more depleted at Barclays Center, as Kerr confirmed that Thompson will not play in the second of the back-to-back games.
“It’s always tough – the last one on the road’s always tough, especially on a back-to-back. But hopefully we can learn from what we did tonight and we can be better tomorrow,” said Warriors center Kevon Looney.
“Usually when we lose a tough one or we get embarrassed like we did tonight we usually respond well, so hopefully we can go out there and play a little angry and play a little tougher and play better.”
Tuesday night’s result was quite the opposite of the Warriors’ last contest against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden last December, when they won 105-96 and Curry became the NBA’s career leader in three-pointers.
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