Kyrie Irving and Cavs thrash still lethargic Knicks despite Carmelo Anthony’s 29 points

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CAVS 109, KNICKS 94
CLEVELAND — The Knicks staunchly defended endangered coach Mike Woodson for a couple of days following their self-described embarrassing 41-point loss Sunday to Boston.
Well, at least they finally defended something this season.
The Knicks briefly clawed back from another laggard start Tuesday night, but Kyrie Irving torched them for 37 points and 11 assists, and the Woodson Watch is back in all its potentially gory glory following a 109-94 loss to the Cavaliers.
“I don’t want to keep using embarrassing. We’ve had two already, Boston and San Antonio (on Nov. 10). Right now the losing is just becoming unacceptable,” Carmelo Anthony said afterward in a sullen locker room devoid of answers. “Hopefully everybody feels like that. I can’t be the only one that’s feeling like that.
“As a team we should feel that losing is unacceptable.”
Anthony led the Knicks (5-15) — say it slowly, five and fifteen — with 29 points, and Amar’e Stoudemire had another silver-lining game off the bench with 15 on 7-for-10 shooting in a season-high 27 minutes.
But Irving and the Cavaliers shot 57%, going 9-for-19 from three-point range, while the Knicks — who played for the second straight game without Tyson Chandler’s fill-in, Kenyon Martin — endured another poor shooting night.
Starting guard Iman Shumpert nearly was held scoreless for the second consecutive game, until he scored his only two points in the closing minutes. Meanwhile, J.R. Smith (14 points) and Andrea Bargnani (11) combined to shoot just 32% (10-for-31).
“It’s just like kicking a man when he’s down. That’s what it felt like,” Smith said.
With Martin sidelined again due to soreness in his balky left ankle, Woodson inserted Metta World Peace into the starting lineup for the first time — marking the Knicks’ eighth different configuration in 20 games entering Wednesday’s home game against Chicago. World Peace finished with three points and two rebounds in 19 minutes after Woodson had used rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. in a smaller starting configuration in Sunday’s blowout loss. Anthony labeled that loss “an embarrassment” and “a step backwards” after the Knicks had convincingly won the previous two games after a nine-game skid.
“We’ve got to help (Woodson) figure it out,” Anthony said, adding that he’s not consumed by the possibility of looming changes. “He’s not going to do it by himself. As players, no one person is going to do it by themselves. We’ve got to help each other figure this out. I’m not thinking about (changes) right now. If that was to happen we have to deal with that at that point. If we start thinking about that, we’ll be 5-25.
“It will all be spiraling downhill if we start thinking about that.”
Preventing such a spiral was about the only difference between this loss and the Boston debacle. The Knicks came out misfiring again in the first quarter while allowing Irving (15 first-half points) and the Cavs to race to a 27-9 lead, including a 16-2 margin from the free-throw line. The Knicks were 2-for-10 from three-point range in the quarter, but they clawed back to tie the score at 40 with 3:30 left in the half.
Woodson’s team then committed six of its 13 turnovers in the third quarter as Cleveland pushed its lead back to 81-65, and the Knicks never drew closer than 13 the rest of the way.
“(The Boston) game hurt,” Anthony said. “I said that was an embarrassment. That game hurt. We wanted to come out and start the game off a little bit differently tonight. But we didn’t. We dug ourselves a hole and we had to fight back… I don’t have any answers right now.”
Asked if it is growing more difficult to put on a “brave face,” Anthony added: “I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to fake the funk. I don’t know how to put on anything like that. I’m a real straightforward person. I am remaining positive.
“Do it hurt? Hell yeah, it hurts. Losing hurts. The way we’re losing hurts. But I will remain positive. I don’t know how to fake it. I don’t know how to put on a face for that. It is what it is.”