NEW YORK _ Without a practice under their belts, two of the three players acquired in the Kristaps Porzingis trade on Thursday were in the Knicks' starting lineup Sunday afternoon at the Garden, which either was a reflection of the quality that the Knicks brought back or, more likely, how easy it is to get in the starting lineup on a 10-42 team.
The game was 35 seconds old when Dennis Smith Jr. swooped in for a reverse layup, the first points of the game. Then on the other end DeAndre Jordan swatted away a layup by Bruno Caboclo. It was almost enough to make you forget the Kristaps Porzingis era. In the end, though, the results were very similar to the Knicks' performances before the trade, a 96-84 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Porzingis era isn't over yet, not with his news conference scheduled for Monday afternoon in Dallas, his new home after the trade that sent the Knicks' franchise cornerstone packing. That may be the final say for Porzingis after sending thinly veiled messages on Instagram since the trade.
Porzingis posted, "The Truth will come out," Thursday night and then followed that late Saturday night with another message, declaring, "The city deserves better than that ... My suggestion for knicks fans is to STAY WOKE!!"
"No, no reaction at all," Knicks coach David Fizdale said before Sunday's game. "I know what we're trying to do here. I know how hard we're working, what we're trying to accomplish and I'm staying focused on that task. Every day these guys work extremely hard for this city, extremely hard for these fans. They don't like losing either. But this is where they are right now trying to fight for their wins. I just know that these dudes are pros and they come in and get it done and I'm really proud to be a part of this group."
But in a library quiet Madison Square Garden _ the only sounds above a whisper were the boos for former Knick Joakim Noah and the occasional chants of "We want Kanter" _ the Knicks showed that if the part of the plan about building with Porzingis as a centerpiece is over the part about improving their chances in the draft lottery remains in full effect. With the new faces in place the Knicks still lost their 13th straight game and 21st in the last 22 _ including their 14th straight loss at the Garden, where they haven't won since Dec. 1.
The Grizzlies arrived with 11 losses in their last 12 games and well aware that the stars of team _ Marc Gasol and Mike Conley Jr. _ are being shopped before Thursday's trade deadline.
Still, the Grizzlies steadily pulled away from the Knicks, building up the lead to as many as 16 points. Smith Jr. provided a handful of highlights starting with that opening bucket and featuring a beautiful pass in the second quarter to Kevin Knox for an open 3-point field goal.
Smith wound up with just eight points while Wesley Matthews had five points, hitting 1 of 7 shots beyond the arc. Jordan put up a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds while Enes Kanter clapped along with fans chanting for him while he didn't get off the bench.
The Knicks continued their efforts to win the hearts and minds of the fan base. Knicks president Steve Mills appeared in an interview on the MSG Network and explained why he believed the team had to move Porzingis _ shortly before the team's MSG Network put up a graphic that included in the bio of Porzingis that he had skipped his exit interview in 2017 and had only played in 186 out of a possible 296 games.
"We felt the [Feb. 7 trade deadline] was really important because if we let this go beyond the seventh, the leverage completely shifted," Mills said. "We would not have control of the situation. We weren't sure what Kristaps was going to come in and tell us. We didn't know if he'd come in and tell us he wanted to be traded or he may have come in and said he wanted to do a one-year contract with a player option, which would then have made him untradeable and he would have had all the leverage.
"We just felt that we needed to have some certainty by the seventh. When they came in to meet with us, they made it clear to us _ it was a meeting that they requested _ they made it clear to us that he did not want to play for the Knicks, that he was not going to re-sign with us as a free agent. And we in one way thanked him for the clarity because it gave us the information we needed to know."
