Knicks let down their guard again in loss to Timberwolves

Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire were putting up the type of numbers Wednesday night that the Knicks hoped they would when they came together. The Knicks still found themselves in a huge hole.

It didn't matter how solid Anthony and Stoudemire looked offensively, not with the Knicks consistently struggling to get stops.

Another poor defensive effort led to another head-scratching defeat -- to a team that before this game had a worse record than the Knicks. Making matters worse, Minnesota was without three of its top four players and still rolled to a 115-99 victory at the Target Center.

This two-game trip was dreadful for the Knicks (3-10). They trailed by 26 in Milwaukee Tuesday night and were down 24 Wednesday night on their way to their ninth loss in 10 games.

"We're kind of reliving the days over and over again," Anthony said. "I just don't want to get used to feeling this feeling of losing basketball games. Games that we should be winning we're just letting slip out of our hands, regardless of [whether] it's early in the season or not."

The Knicks got within two twice in the final 12 seconds against the Bucks. There was no comeback Wednesday night against the 3-7 Timberwolves, who allowed 270 points in their prior two games and lost by 62 points.

Anthony scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half but watched the last 16:04 from the bench and rested his sore left knee. Stoudemire had 19 in only 20 minutes.

Kevin Martin torched the Knicks for 37 points. He shot 14-for-20, and 7-for-11 from three. Shabazz Muhammed added 17 points, and Mo Williams had 14 points and 13 assists.

The T-Wolves were averaging five three-pointers per game. They shot 11-for-22 against the team yielding the highest three-point percentage in the league (43.3 percent), and led by double digits for all but 1:25 of the second half.

The Timberwolves were without starters Ricky Rubio (sprained ankle), center Nikola Pekovic (sprained wrist) and forward Thaddeus Young (death of his mother). Respectively, they're the Timberwolves' assist leader, top rebounder and second-leading scorer.

Without them, Minnesota still feasted on the Knicks' soft defense.

After a close first quarter, the Wolves shot 15-for-21 in the second, scored 37 points and took a 64-51 lead at the half. The night before, the Bucks shot 15-for-23 in the second quarter and scored 36.

Derek Fisher acknowledged what is abundantly clear: enough talk about the triangle offense. The Knicks clearly aren't defending. "Whether or not we understand the triangle is not what's costing us these games," Fisher said. "I think for a while, that was our out, but that's no longer our out. We've talked about that from the beginning, defense had to be the end that was going to hold us together and it's not right now."

After cutting it to 64-55 early in the third, the Knicks had more defensive breakdowns. The Timberwolves made seven of their next 10 shots and opened an 86-62 lead with 4:05 left.

Fisher went with a makeshift group that included Travis Wear and Cole Aldrich after that. They made a dent in the deficit, but the Knicks never got it under 13."We got to come up with something," J.R. Smith said. "It's not fun anymore. It's not fun losing."

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.