http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/sports/basketball/knicks-rally-take-lead-over-top-team-never-mind-.html 2014-12-08 05:51:51 Knicks Rally, Take Lead Over Top Team ... Never Mind After trailing for most of their game against Portland, the Knicks charged back late in the fourth quarter, but miscues erased the advantage. === It was swift but predictable late Sunday, the way the cheers at Madison Square Garden were replaced with groans. After trailing for most of their game against the Trailing by 3 points with 48 seconds left to play, the Knicks came out of a timeout and set up a 3-pointer for Pablo Prigioni, the reserve point guard. But the ball clanged off the rim, and the Knicks went on to lose, The Knicks have now dropped eight straight games. Their record has fallen to 4-18 — an unseemly mark that will prove a difficult hole from which to dig, even if the Knicks somehow find a way to turn things around. “There’s a level of attention to detail that we’re still below in order to win these games,” Coach Derek Fisher said. Their immediate future looks dicey. After the game Sunday, they prepared to embark on a three-game trip — to face the New Orleans Pelicans, the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics — while carrying the league’s worst road record, 1-9. The Blazers, who were beginning a five-game trip, extended their winning streak to four games to improve to 16-4 over all. They have molded themselves over the least three seasons into one of the league’s best teams, which is why the Knicks’ late run had the crowd so excited. With a little less than six minutes to play, the Knicks made four unanswered baskets and took their first lead since late in the second quarter, the noise from the crowd rising with each shot and every stop. It started when Carmelo Anthony (23 points) popped up the right side and hit a 3-pointer, cutting the Trail Blazers’ advantage to 4 points. The next time down the court, Anthony settled with the ball a few steps inside the 3-point arc, jabbed his right foot ahead a few times, and then pulled back to drain a long 2-pointer. After another Knicks stop, Amar’e Stoudemire fired in a midrange jumper to tie the score at 95-95. The Knicks took the lead, finally, when Anthony hopped powerfully to the basket and finished a layup with 3 minutes 33 seconds left. But the Knicks made only one of their final five shots after that, with each miss turning the volume in the building back down. To make matters worse, after their final timeout was called with 48.2 seconds left to play, Anthony spent several seconds on the floor gingerly twirling his right ankle, which he had appeared to turn. Anthony limped to the bench and finished the game. LeBron James, whose Cleveland Cavaliers were scheduled to play the Nets at Barclays Center on Monday night, The losing has become habitual, and Fisher said before the game that it seemed as if the Knicks were not completely buying into their new system. “I think there’s still some doubt that we can do this the way we’re working on doing it,” Fisher said of his players. “When the pressure goes up, the stress goes up, the tendency to revert to old habits, and not sticking with what you’re developing now.” The Trail Blazers were a red-hot team, arriving at the Garden with a 12-1 record since Nov. 9. Before the game, the coaches on both teams implied that the Knicks could learn a couple of lessons from Portland’s path over the last few years. Fisher, for example, pointed out that the Blazers seemed to have matured and grown closer as a group this season after losing a tough playoff series to the Spurs last season — turning a negative situation into a positive opportunity. “Adversity brings the best out of a lot of people, and I think they found out a lot about who they were in San Antonio,” Fisher said. “Hopefully, we can learn through that as we fight through our struggles.” Terry Stotts, who was hired as the Trail Blazers’ coach before the 2012-13 season, has had the opportunity to nurture a young, talented core of players. The team won 33 games in his first season and 54 games the season after that. “I think it’s difficult, no matter who it is, coming in as a first-year coach,” Stotts said. “Just, coming in with a new system in place, getting to know the strengths and weakness of your players, developing a culture, is not something that happens overnight.” Stotts noted that patience and continuity were keys to developing a team in the league. But he noted the obvious problem in professional sports: Constancy often begets success, but constancy often comes only after success is achieved. “When you’re fortunate enough for that to happen,” Stotts said, “it’s rewarding at the end.” The end, for the Knicks, seems far away.