Knicks fall to Hornets after Kristaps Porzingis' buzzer-beater waved off

The legend of Kristaps Porzingis almost grew Wednesday night with a game-winning shot, but this was one time that the 7-3 rookie's length hurt him.

"His fingers were too long," Carmelo Anthony said.

Kristaps buried a three-pointer at the buzzer that would have given the Knicks a victory over the Hornets. Anthony had a huge smile on his face as his Knicks' teammates were mobbing Porzingis.

But after the officials reviewed it, they saw the ball was on Porzingis' fingertips as the red light came on and waved it off. The Knicks suffered a tough 95-93 loss to the Hornets.

"It's tough," Porzingis said. "It was a big moment for me. That's a shot I always dreamed of -- a game-winner. So it's tough for me. But we have another game soon. Maybe I'll have another chance like that and I'll make the shot in time."

It was a wild ending to a game the Knicks (4-5) led by 12 in the second half and 10 to start of the fourth quarter.

After the Hornets took the lead on a layup with six-tenths of a second left, Lance Thomas was taking the ball out of bounds from the side.

Porzingis said the play was for him to set a screen for Anthony to pop out for a three-pointer. But then Porzingis was going to cut backdoor for a lob if that was open. He said his man was overplaying him, so he popped out, took the Thomas pass and let it fly. But he was one-tenth of a second late. "As soon as I let it go, I thought it was going in," said Porzingis, who had 10 points and a career-best 15 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. "I thought it was good. We all celebrated. It was late. It's tough.

"You can see that the red light was on and the ball was barely still touching my hands. It was no good."

That was just one of three plays that crushed the Knicks and overshadowed starting shooting guard Arron Afflalo's debut. Back from a hamstring injury, Afflalo had 12 points in 28 minutes. Anthony, who had a game-high 29 points, had a chance to give the Knicks the lead with under four seconds left. But his baseline jumper with the score tied at 93-all hit the side of the backboard. It ended up being a shot-clock violation.

Then the Hornets scored what proved to be the game-winner when Spencer Hawes was out of bounds under the basket and fed Cody Zeller for a layup with less than a second left.

On that play, former Knick Jeremy Lin, who scored eight of his 17 in the fourth, cut to the basket. Robin Lopez cheated to help, freeing Zeller. He got the pass and laid it in.

"I saw Lin and thought he had a step," Lopez said. "I knew previously he hit a couple of shots down the stretch. Maybe I got too extended. I try to be responsible for anything towards the rim. I got to keep a better radar of who's where."

Anthony said, "That's a tough way to lose, tough way to give that game up on a layup under the basket."

But Anthony tried taking the blame for the defeat because of his late brick. Anthony didn't miss much in the second half. He was 8 for 11 with 20 second-half points when he got the ball.

He said when he was bringing the ball up, Marvin Williams tipped it and it affected his release. "I didn't deliver," Anthony said. "I had in my mind I was going to deliver. It was just one of those opportunities that I didn't take advantage of. I'll take that one, man. I had that opportunity right in my hands to close this game out and I didn't."

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.