Jazz 128, Knicks 104: Scenes from the end of the road trip FROM HELL

I wrote “RIP” to the West Coast trip in the subhead of this article.

What you may not know is, like a good friend of mine often says, I really mean “Rest in PISS.”

This West Coast trip SUCKED. At least the first West Coast death trip under Mike Miller was a 2-2 affair. This 0-4 debacle, punctuated by tonight’s 128-104 loss to the Jazz, was not fun in the slightest.

Much like the game against the Lakers last night, the Knicks came out and looked like maybe they could hang for about the first two minutes. Then it all went to shit.

Elfrid Payton was really bad. Frank Ntilikina, in your Silver Lining of the Night, was actually very good! A TEAM-LEADING (say whaaaaat) 16 points on 6-10 shooting for Frank, to go with four rebounds and three assists in just 19 minutes.

Frank had a similar night to last night’s game against the Lakers, scoring seven points quickly in his first few minutes off the bench. Unlike last night, Frank actually got almost 20 minutes tonight, rather than the mere 13 he got against the Lakers.

Individual plus/minus certainly isn’t everything, but Frank ended tonight’s game as a team-high plus-10 and Payton ended with a team-low minus-33. Maybe it’s time for a change again at the point guard spot?

Elsewhere in the positives, Wayne Ellington managed to kinda find his stroke again, scoring 11 points and shooting 3-5 from three. Quick, trade him!

Damyean Dotson also had a solid effort off the bench, scoring 11 points on 5-9 shooting.

That’s basically it. The team sucked on the whole, obviously. The Jazz killed the Knicks a million different ways, with eight different players in double figures.

Buckle up for a healthy dose of Shwin ranting and raving tomorrow in his recap. In the meantime, sleep well, and see you at the Garden on Friday.