Heat 95, Knicks 78: Scenes from the first real stinker in a while

Hey! The Knicks finally laid an egg. It was going to happen eventually. Beginning mid-way through the first quarter, the Knicks had a devil of a time executing -- they were sloppy, lazy, inaccurate, and slow to react. A Carmelo Anthony-led fit of activity in the second half made you briefly wonder if this could be a basketball game, but ... no, it never really became a basketball game.

This is pretty much the tale of the first half:

NY bench was scoreless in first half. With their starting five on court, Knicks outscored MIA, 26-21. Other lineups: MIA outscored NY 31-4.

— Chris Herring (@HerringWSJ) November 24, 2015

The New York starters held serve with Miami's, then Derek Fisher plopped his whole bench onto the floor (well, not all of it, but he'd probably play 8 bench players at once if he could!) and Miami's extremely bouncy reserves sustained some excellent defense. The bench match-up hurt, offering no defense and no shooting whatsoever (they were probably due for an off night.)

A bad first half for Melo ...

... and some late-arriving defense against stretchy Miami lineups ...

... didn't help either.

At least Melo and Kristaps woke up in the second half to give us a moment or two:

Stinky game, though. Jose Calderon was the only Knick to hit at least half his shots. Stinky games'll happen. On to Orlando.