New York Knicks Takeaways From Loss vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

Questionable Coaching…Again

Derek Fisher has been a hot topic all season as it seems that the Knicks are winning in spite of him some nights. Without Carmelo Anthony he was in a tough position tonight, but he did very little to help them out. Tonight he made the right decision sticking with Galloway and Grant over Jose Calderon in the backcourt, but that is about all he did well.

For whatever reason, Fisher continued calling plays for the struggling Afflalo all night despite him not being able to make any shots. He was put in an isolation the final play of regulation, which Fisher used a timeout to draw up. Plays out of timeouts is something Fisher has struggled with since he became the head coach and is something that needs to improve if the Knicks are to pull out close games such as tonight.

He also needs to do more to get the ball into the hands of Kristaps Porzingis. Porzingis was electrifying once again at times, but too often he disappears but not by any of his own doing. He works hard whenever on the court, but offensively he is stuck watching as a spectator instead of being involved in the game plan. Fisher needs to get him more involved, especially in games in which Anthony is sidelined.

Porzingis is a weapon the Knicks do not use often enough, and that is on Fisher. The Knicks were shorthanded tonight without Anthony, but he did very little to help make up the void as the players played their hearts out and he looked on aimlessly from the sidelines more often than not.

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The Knicks are now also 0-5 without Carmelo Anthony playing this season, despite either taking a tie or lead into the fourth quarter in all of them. In four of them, they had the lead with five minutes left in the quarter, yet couldn’t close any out. That is as much on the coach as the players as he is not putting his guys in position to succeed that are not normally put into late game situations.