NEW YORK – A little more than a year after Lenny Wilkens returned home to his native New York to coach the Knicks, his team’s third last-second loss in a week, 92-91, to Jeff Van Gundy’s Rockets on Friday, cost him his job.
Wilkens was fired less than two hours after the loss, with the official announcement to come later Saturday. Herb Williams is expected to replace him on an interim basis, although for how long is uncertain.
Friday’s loss was the last straw for team president Isiah Thomas, who left without comment after a game the Knicks seemed to have well in hand after overcoming a nine-point deficit with less than five minutes to play.
Instead, they committed a critical shot-clock violation with 10.2 seconds to play and a one-point lead. Then after forcing the ball out of the hands of Tracy McGrady, Scott Padgett delivered a six-foot floater in the lane that fell through as the game clock reached all zeroes.
That made it two victories in a row for Van Gundy in the building he once called home.
Those same fans greeted Wilkens with a modicum of boos.
Friday’s loss made it nine in 10 games for a team now a season-high five below the .500 mark that Thomas set as its moderate goal.
only two weeks ago.
That also made it three last-second losses in four games, the first two back-to-back to the Bulls last Saturday and Monday on Eddy Curry’s finger-roll with 2.4 seconds left, then Ben Gordon’s runner with one-tenth of a second on the clock.
And now this, with Allan Houston watching from the bench in street clothes, his left knee acting up again.
Wilkens, who departs with both the most victories (1,355) and losses (1,174) in NBA history, leaves with a 40-41 record during his Knicks tenure, including 17-22 this year.
Williams, meanwhile, takes over much as he did for one game after Chaney’s firing last season, a victory over Orlando.
The Knicks led 91-90 with the ball when Marbury (20 points, five assists) went up for a jumper just inside the three-point line at the top of the key.
“I went up and I saw Jamal open in my vision,” Marbury said. “So I threw it to the open man and obviously the ball slipped out of his hands and the shot clock went down.”
“The ball’s coming to me,” said Crawford (6-for-19, 18 points), who was outside the three-point arc to Marbury’s right. “I think I have a clear look. I didn’t have a real good grasp and I didn’t want to throw it up there, so I tried to get it back to Steph.”
As Marbury caught it and threw it back to Crawford, the shot-clock buzzer went off.
“We should’ve gone sooner,” Wilkens said. “If you’re going to do something like that, you’ve got to go sooner. (Marbury) went up to draw somebody and he passed it. I thought Jamal was going to shoot it the first time. It went back and forth, but the whole idea was good because Jamal did make the shot (after the buzzer).”
In other words, too little, too late.
On the subsequent Rockets’ possession, the Knicks did manage to get the ball out of the hands of McGrady, who scored 18 of his 35 points in the third quarter. He managed to find Padgett, who shot amid traffic in the lane.
“I got lucky,” Padgett said.
“That was a totally busted play that turned out good,” Van Gundy said.
“It was a little payback for when Jamal Crawford beat us at the buzzer,” McGrady said.”
That was Nov. 18 in Houston when Crawford beat the buzzer by banking in a game-winning three – a little more than two months that seems like two centuries ago for Crawford and Co.
“We had a chance to win it,” Wilkens said. “We were in the right position there. Padgett makes a shot right there. If he doesn’t make that shot, if we delay him a second longer, the game’s over.”
And maybe he’s still coaching today.
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