Jazz 113, Knicks 104: Scenes from a pathetic collapse in Utah

Not again.

The New York Knicks parlayed a 24-2 third-quarter stretch into a 10-point lead, but for the second game in a row, they collapsed. And for the second game in a row, it was the woeful play of the bench — once the team’s foundation — which doomed the Knicks to a 113-104 loss.

The good guys really could have used the services of Quentin Grimes Monday night. Unfortunately, Grimes was out with a sore knee. The Jazz have plenty of talented scoring guards in Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson, and unfortunately RJ Barrett couldn’t guard them all. The tremendous trio of Barrett (23 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists), Julius Randle (30 points), and Mitchell Robinson (19 points, 21 rebounds), nearly carried the Knicks to a win, but all three players looked gassed by the fourth quarter.

And none of them could catch a break, as the bench bros — particularly Nerlens Noel and Immanuel Quickley — were horrific. The Jazz were able to power past the exhausted Knicks late, and that was all she wrote.

Recap to come. Get some sleep, folks.