The Knicks hadn’t dropped three straight games all season, but this loss to the injury-decimated Magic truly punctuated their ugliest shooting stretch and play of the year.
Let us repeat for effect: this was downright ugly.
With Karl-Anthony Towns sitting out for the third time this season with a right knee issue, the Knicks couldn’t overcome a wretched night from the outside to extend their three-game skid in a 103-94 loss to Orlando at the Garden.
The Knicks converted only four of their 22 attempts from 3-point range — beating the NBA low total for the season by one — and they are shooting just 28.8 percent from deep over their past six games overall.
Mikal Bridges scored 24 points but missed five of six from long range as the Knicks (24-13) kicked off a stretch of 12 of 14 games at home with a clunker. They began the day tied with the Pacers for the most road games in the league (13-8).
Jalen Brunson also scored 24 points before fouling out and Josh Hart added 15 with 14 rebounds for the Knicks, while Cole Anthony led the Magic with 24.
“Make sure you’re doing the things that are necessary to win.”
Thibodeau’s team certainly had done those things in their three previous wins since Dec. 3 against the Magic (22-16). No. 4 Orlando is one spot behind the Knicks in the Eastern Conference standings despite the continued injury absences of Paolo Banchero, brothers Franz and Moe Wagner and most recently, Jalen Suggs.
With Towns sidelined after limping off the court late in Saturday’s loss in Chicago, Jericho Sims got his third start of the season and finished with four points and 10 rebounds in 29 minutes.
Bridges scored nine points and Brunson netted eight in the final 1:05 — after missing his first five sH๏τs — as the Knicks held a 28-24 lead through one quarter.
The Magic grabbed a three-point lead midway through the second and the Knicks trailed 53-51 at intermission after missing 12 of 15 from 3-point land in the half.
Anthony’s 3-pointer opened the cushion to eight just past the midpoint of the third, shortly after Brunson sat down after getting poked in the eye by Goga Bitadze.
Brunson returned with 4:25 to go and sank a couple of short-range buckets to pull the Knicks within two before an 8-0 Magic spurt on consecutive treys by Jonathan Isaac and Wendell Carter Jr. and two free throws by Anthony Black made it a 75-65 game.
A jumper by Precious Achiuwa and a Bridges free throw closed the gap back to seven entering the final period.
The Knicks went down by 10 on Carter’s pull-up jumper with 6:55 to go, but an Achiuwa dunk and a Brunson baseline fadeaway provided hope for a turnaround.
But Kentavious Caldwell-Pope drained a 3-pointer, and Carter nailed another following an Achiuwa turnover for the Magic’s largest lead of the game, 95-84, with 3:04 left.