Knicks look to rebound against Lakers

LOS ANGELES -- The NBA lockout may not have narrowed the gap between the haves and have-nots in exactly the way it was designed to do, but it does seem to have added an air of drama and uncertainty all the same. Between rust from the layoff and fatigue from the intense scheduling, it looks as if just about anything can happen on any night.

Who would have figured that the Knicks would look so shabby in a 92-78 loss at Golden State Wednesday night, given that they were coming off an inspired win over the Celtics on Christmas Day and the luxury of two days off?

Add to that the fact that the Warriors were without star point guard Stephen Curry, and a person never would have expected the Knicks to be the team that would go ice-cold in the second half (35 points on 34.3-percent shooting).

Then again, who would have thought the Warriors would have beaten the Bulls on Monday night after the Bulls looked so good against the Lakers on Sunday? And what about the Lakers, the Knicks' hosts Thursday night, who were the first to have back-to-back-to-back games and went 1-2? There was no telling which side was the favorite heading into the game at Staples Center.

As far as coach Mike D'Antoni was concerned, the Knicks on Wednesday night looked like a team that had not had enough preseason preparation. "We're just not in sync yet. I think, with a lot of teams, you'll see a lot of uneven play," he said. "You just have to put it aside and get ready for tomorrow.

"We just didn't play well. We made bad passes. We hit them in the chest a couple times. On a fast break, we threw it away," the coach said. "Whatever kind of mistakes we could make, we made them. It was one of those games where you see we're not quite ready yet."

Amar'e Stoudemire, who led the Knicks with 16 points but shot only 5-for-14 from the floor, said the performance was neither unexpected nor unnerving.

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"We saw some great things defensively. We got after it out there. Right now, our defense is ahead of our offense, which is not a bad position to be in," he said. "Defense was what we've been focusing on all training camp and we're getting better at that. It's just going to take time to get our offense together. Offense is the fun part of basketball, so it shouldn't take us too long to get it together."

One bright spot was Landry Fields' first half. Fields has something to prove this season, considering that his stirring rookie season slid downhill after the Carmelo Anthony trade. Playing not far from Stanford, his alma mater, he was assertive in the first half against Golden State, scoring 13 points. But he finished with 14 on a team that stumbled through a 28-6 burst that gave the Warriors an 89-70 lead.

"I just wanted to go out and be aggressive,'' Fields said. "I was having fun out there, too. I've got to put that together for two halves."

Fields said he didn't think it was a matter of cobwebs on the Knicks' offensive system.

"I know guys came in ready. Everybody maintained shape in the offseason, during the lockout. It was just one of those games," he said.

The condensed schedule can be a team's best friend. A short flight to Southern California and a quick turnaround, and a tough loss is history. "It's a great thing about our league," Fields said in the locker room in Oakland. "You get the back-to-backs, so I'm already focused on the Lakers."