Wins have been hard to come by for Derek Fisher’s New York Knicks team this season, but the young squad that has been pieced together throughout the season still has plenty of fight left in it.

That was Coach Fish’s takeaway from back-to-back losses against Western Conference competition. The Knicks lacked luster in a 106-78 defeat to the Denver Nuggets Monday night, but they turned around and nearly stole a road victory to the Utah Jazz, but their valiant effort fell short in an 87-82 loss Tuesday night.

“I think we’re just continuing to try to press forward and come to work every night with a positive mindset,” Derek said. “That’s why we had a chance to win tonight. It would’ve been easy to feel sorry for ourselves after last night, but the guys keep coming back. We’re losing games but they’re still showing some character and some fight and we still have to respect that about them.”

NY GOES DOWN IN DENVER

With his team playing in the high elevation at Denver’s Pepsi Center, D-Fish came away talking about toughness—both mental and physical.

His squad looked good early, battling to a 25-25 draw after one quarter and keeping the game to within three, 43-40, going into the final three minutes of the first half. However, the wheels came off in those final three minutes, and the Nuggets closed the second quarter on a 12-0 run, and New York never recovered.

“We just allowed the game to get away from us in the last few minutes of the second quarter,” Derek said. “That’s really a part of being in this business and being in this league: being able to finish quarters and finish halves and sustain your focus, energy and effort. A lot of guys struggled from an energy standpoint, and that’s difficult to do in this building, but it requires some mental toughness that we didn’t show tonight.”

After the rough close to the first half, the game continued to slip away for the Knicks in the third. Ty Lawson and Wilson Chandler combined for 19 points, while Kenneth Faried added seven. As a result, Denver had the game well in-hand, riding a 91-59 cushion into the final frame.

Four Knicks finished in double figures, while Shane Larkin and Jason Smith each tallied eight points. Rookie Cleanthony Early turned in 10 points off the bench, while Andrea Bargnani had 12 and Langston Galloway added 14.

Alexey Shved led the way while making his first start for the Knicks, going 6-of-12 from the floor and 3-of-6 from three to tie for a game-high 19 points.

Despite those few bright spots, Coach Fish was overall disappointed in the way his team performed and the effort they gave throughout the night.

“It’s easy to dive into the basketball part of what may have happened, but we just couldn’t sustain our commitment to playing the game the way you have to play it at this level over the course of 48 minutes,” Fish explained. “The game was 43-40, and once the air came out of the balloon, it was difficult for our guys to recover tonight. We can get into the strategy and X’s and O’s and make stuff sound a certain way, but we just didn’t have enough guys sustain what they needed to do tonight.”

KNICKS SHORT IN SLC

Facing the NBA’s best defensive team since the All-Star break, the Knicks struggled on the offensive end early.

Utah held New York to just 20 points off 36.4 percent shooting in the first quarter and 15 points off 27.8 percent shooting to take a 43-35 lead into the break. Derrick Favors gouged the Knicks in the first half, scoring 20 of his game-high 29 points.

On the other end, Andrea Bargnani and Alexey Shved buoyed Fish’s squad with a combined 17 points—and that duo led a tremendous charge in the third quarter.

With some halftime adjustments, the Knicks came out firing. After a Rodney Hood triple put the Jazz ahead 49-40, the Knicks reeled off a 17-2 run to take a 57-51 lead.

Hood eventually broke New York’s hot streak, as he and Dante Exum went back-to-back from deep, but the Knicks kept on the gas, and a late bucket from Shane Larkin kept the game tied at 65 going into the final frame.

New York showed just how good it can be when clicking in the third. Seven Knicks combined to shoot 72.2 percent, ripping one of the NBA’s best defensive squads for 30 points. Shved led the way, canning a pair of threes to total eight points, while Bargnani had six, and Cleanthony Early and Cole Aldrich combined for nine off the bench.

“I think the ball was moving more,” Derek said of his team’s terrific third quarter. “We were getting stops, we were really begin active on the defensive end, rebounding well, and we were playing with a little more pace. Whenever you can get down the floor and get the ball moving before the defense is set, that’s always the goal. We did that more in the third quarter, and that got away from us a little in the fourth.”

As Fish mentioned, the Knicks couldn’t sustain that kind of play into the final frame. Their shooting percentage dropped back down to 23.8, while the Jazz looked back to Favors and to nine points from Joe Ingles to walk off their home floor with the five-point win.

It was once again Shved, Bargnani and Aldrich providing the scoring in the final frame, combining for all 17 of New York’s points. Bargnani tallied 20 points—his third 20-point effort in the last four games. Shved was the high scorer with 21, while nearing a triple-double with 10 rebounds and seven assists. He made just his second start in a Knicks uniform, and he has been the team’s leading scorer in both contests.

“He continues to get comfortable making plays out on the floor that are available to him,” D-Fish said of Shved. “He’s one of the guys who, even if things are breaking down on an offensive possession, his ball skills, his passing and his shot making allow him to figure some things out. It’s great to see him playing with that kind of confidence. We want all of our guys to play with that type of belief in themselves.”

Aldrich certainly followed Shved’s lead Tuesday night, going for a 17-point, 13-rebound double-double. His 17 points were one shy of his career-high of 18, set in December, and the effort marked his first double-digit output since his 11-point night against the Washington Wizards in early January.

“He’s been a guy who, as the injuries have piled up, he’s been able to come in and be effective for us. He doesn’t change his approach on a daily basis. He’s normally the first one at the facility at the same time, working out the same way and keeping consistent habits. He’s taking advantage of the opportunities that are coming to him. He’s a great teammate and he’s developing into one of our younger leaders on the roster, and we’re going to need that from him as we finish out the season.”

With that trio playing well and fueling a third-quarter comeback, Fish left Salt Lake City, not discouraged by the loss, but encouraged by the way his squad battled and gave itself a chance to win late on the road.

“I think the effort was better,” Fish said. “The first half we started out OK but didn’t finish the half in a great way in the second quarter. But compared to last night, the way we came out in the third quarter and fought and went into the fourth quarter with a chance to win—that’s the mentality you have to have each night. In the NBA, you go on the road and lose a close game, you have to live with that sometimes. I thought our guys fought hard tonight.”

NEXT UP

After taking Wednesday to rest, the Knicks (12-51) will be right back at it Thursday night against Fish’s longtime team, the Los Angeles Lakers (17-46).

Derek won five NBA championships during two stints with the Lakers, taking the crown in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2010.

This year’s L.A. squad hasn’t resembled the Lakers of old, as it sits in second-to-last place in the Western Conference. However, Tuesday night, they broke a five-game losing streak by topping the Detroit Pistons, 93-85.

New York won the first of two meetings between the teams this season in a 92-80 victory on February 1.

Fish’s team will look to secure the season sweep when they tip off at 10:30 p.m. ET from the Staples Center.

RELATED LINKS

• Fisher: Knicks fought hard against Jazz (MSG, March 10, 2015)
• Fisher assesses Knicks loss to Nuggets (MSG, March 9, 2015)
• Faried’s 19 points lead Nuggets past Knicks (AP, March 9, 2015)
• Jazz hold off pesky Knicks (AP, March 10, 2015)
• Knicks at Nuggets: Game Book (NBA.com, March 9, 2015)
• Knicks at Jazz: Game Book (NBA.com, March 10, 2015)