The Knicks were holding strong with the retooled 76ers on Sunday afternoon, looking to secure an upset victory and right the ship before a crucial stretch run.
Instead, in an all-too familiar sight, New York came apart in the fourth quarter, shooting 9-for-25 in the final period while getting outscored by 14 points after trailing by one.
After the loss, Evan Fournier made it clear that the team's offense simply has to do better down the stretch in close games.
"Just the execution part. I think the last time I was sitting here, I said exactly the same thing," Fournier said. "It's still happening, and that's why it's so frustrating. The fourth quarter, the intensity is different...our offense, as players, we need to think about what we want to achieve when we run something."
Fournier himself didn't help the cause himself, missing his only field goal attempt and finishing as a -11 in the fourth, and the team has shown a continued slump in crunch time, highlighted in brutal collapses against the Trail Blazers, Thunder, and Nets before being thoroughly outplayed by Philadelphia on Sunday at The Garden.
"First and second quarter, you're getting into a rhythm…the fourth quarter is different," Fournier said. "It's when it's time to execute our stuff and go to our best players."
The Knicks are running out of time to correct their fourth-quarter issues, now 11 games under .500 and 12th in the Eastern Conference with 21 games to go. It's fair to say that if the team had improved execution in the fourth quarter, the outlook of the season could be very different.
"It's frustrating, because we're really not far away at all," Fournier said. "We should be winning these games. It's frustrating, man. It's really frustrating."
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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