NEW YORK -- Most of the discussion surrounding Monday's Knicks-Thunder game will center around yet another Russell Westbrook triple-double.
But the New York Knicks left Madison Square Garden much more concerned with Steven Adams and Enes Kanter.
Both Thunder big men corralled several key rebounds late in the fourth quarter of Oklahoma City's 112-103 win over the Knicks, snuffing out any chance of a rally from New York.
"They just outmuscled us," coach Jeff Hornacek said afterward. "Outmuscled and in that (fourth-quarter) stretch they outhustled us. They were quicker to the balls. We didn't do a very good job of boxing guys out. If we think we're going to just turn and not drive a guy away from the basket, just turn thinking you'll get it -- we told them, Kanter and Adams, those guys, you're going to have to hit them and hit them hard. They were just tougher than us."
Hornacek calling his team out for a lack of hustle will probably get a lot of attention -- and deservedly so. But there may be another, more troubling reason the Knicks were unable to keep Kanter (27 points, 10 rebounds) and Adams (14 points, 10 rebounds) off the boards: They don't have the personnel. The lineup on the floor in the final five minutes -- Joakim Noah, Kristaps Porzingis, Carmelo Anthony, Courtney Lee, Derrick Rose -- were ill-equipped to stay in front of Westbrook and keep Kanter and Adams from rebounding.
And the Knicks hadn't rebounded the ball well leading up to the OKC game. They ranked 30th in the NBA in defensive rebounding percentage, which is a percentage of missed shots a team rebounds.
Hornacek, though, said the Knicks' poor rebounding down the stretch was a result of a lack of toughness.
"We got strong guys, too," he said of New York's big men. "There's a difference in being big and strong and having a little nastiness. I think Adams and Kanter had a little nastiness to them. That's where our bigs have to get, where you're not afraid to knock a guy down. Especially if he keeps shoving you under the basket, you've got to do something at some point. To their credit, they did that."
Kanter and Adams helped Oklahoma City corral five offensive rebounds in the final 5:45 of the game, a pivotal stretch in which the Knicks cut the Thunder lead to two. Three of those offensive rebounds led directly to Thunder points.
"We got manhandled," Noah said, clearly frustrated. "That's tough. Russ definitely puts a lot of pressure on the bigs when he's going downhill like that. At the end of the day it's always tough knowing that we lost the game on the glass."
Noah, Phil Jackson's biggest free-agent signing, played in the fourth quarter for the first time in five games. He continues to be frustrated by his production early in the season.
"It's tough. I want to play better obviously, get into a rhythm," Noah said. "Right now I just got to stay focused on my progress and get ready for the next one."
Off night for Melo: Oklahoma City's Andre Roberson guarded Anthony well for significant stretches of Tuesday's game. He helped limit Anthony to just 18 points on 4-for-19 shooting, his worst game of the season.
Afterward, Hornacek hinted that Anthony and the rest of the Knicks needed to do a better job of finding open shooters when he had the ball in the pinch post/elbow area.
"They were loading up a little bit where the guys were on the elbows and that's when you've got to be able to kick it out and loosen them up," Hornacek said. "We didn't do enough of that. We did it a few times and it looks great -- guys get wide open spots. Didn't do it enough."... Rose notched his first 30-point game as a Knick, pouring in 30 points on 10-for-20 shooting. But he wasn't interested in reflecting on it after the game. "Tell you the truth, nah. Thirty don't mean nothing when you lose," Rose said. "And the way that we lost, it wasn't any grit, it wasn't any grind. We can't come out and play like that, period."
