The Knicks without Carmelo Anthony didn't have a shot against the Thunder. Hell, I'm not sure they would've had a shot WITH Melo playing, with Baron Davis healthy, and with a laser komodo dragon at shooting guard. Joamiq (quoted above) nailed it in the game thread. It just wasn't fair.
The Knicks didn't play that badly, all things considered. They started the game defending pretty aggressively and pushing the pace, but eventually everybody realized that Bill Walker was guarding Kevin Durant, Iman Shumpert and Mike Bibby were taking turns against Russell Westbrook, and the Knicks were just generally over-matched on both ends. With neither Shump nor Bibby able to do much creatin', Amar'e Stoudemire was more or less the chief ballhandler-- a gameplan that actually had its moments, but obviously wasn't sustainable. The Thunder began forcing turnovers and getting out in transition, then they got to scoring in halfcourt sets, and before halftime, it was pretty much over. By the second quarter, I was shouting "SHOOT IT!" every time Josh Harrellson touched the ball. By the third, I was doing that every time Jared Jeffries touched the ball. By the fourth, I was dancing around my living room doing somersaults and screaming "HUMPTY!!!" every time Renaldo Balkman did anything. This was barely a basketball game. I blame Melo's obscenely huge pinkie ring for blinding everybody.
There were a couple bright spots: Harrellson played genuinely well on both ends, Toney Douglas hit some of his jumpers, and the garbage unit quietly churned out a 27-12 quarter. That's pretty much it.
So, uh, hopefully Melo will be back for Monday's game against the Magic. If he's not, we get more of Humpty/Jerome Jordan/Steve Novak's orange elbow sleeve. Win-win!