Magic 107, Knicks 89: Scenes from the mother of all trap games

In the game thread I mentioned that Wednesday’s contest with the Orlando Magic had all the hallmarks of a trap game. The Knicks were getting a ton of great press coming off an impressive, hard-fought victory. The Magic are bad but have a big man who can shoot in Nikola Vucevic.

Indeed, it was a trap game.

The Knicks got off to a hot start thanks to another sterling first quarter from Julius Randle (13 points in the first), but the Magic quickly climbed back into the game in the second and took command in the third. New York shot a metric ton of bricks to start the fourth and that was all she wrote. There was a seven-minute stretch between the third and fourth quarters without a field goal. That ain’t gonna cut it.

The bench, which has been the Knicks’ saving grace throughout the recent three-game winning streak, really let them down Wednesday night. Derrick Rose (1-10) and Immanuel Quickley (1-12) simply couldn’t buy a bucket between the two of them.

A bit of coaching controversy: Tom Thibodeau kept RJ Barrett on the bench for most of the fourth quarter as the game was slipping away, despite the fact that he had 15 points through three. Many Knicks fans were perplexed by that decision.

Anyway, the Knicks are off until Sunday. Recap to come.