Stop me if you heard this one before: Knicks blow a big fourth-quarter lead

Over their last three games, the Knicks have been outscored 94-48 in the fourth quarter.

The Knicks' young, promising point guard put on a show last night. He sank three-pointers with ease, defended with intensity, floated in floaters, and hammered home windmill dunks.

Deuce McBride scored a game-high 23 points (on 8-of-16 shooting) and dished out a game-high nine assists, to go along with four rebounds, three triples and two steals, leading the Knicks to 119-106 victory over the Raptors 905.

The issue, of course, is that McBride was playing for the Westchester Knicks, not the New York edition. 

While McBride was doing his thing, the big league club was getting embarrassed inside Madison Square Garden.

On Wednesday afternoon, I tweeted, "What inventive, unique way will the Knicks find tonight? Just blowing a big lead in the 4th quarter won't suffice…"

Well, the Knicks jumped out to an early lead and were up 38-18 at the end of the first quarter. New York had amassed a seemingly insurmountable 28-point cushion in the second quarter. It was at that point I tweeted, only half-jokingly, "If the Knicks can stretch this lead to 175 points by the start of the 4th quarter - they should be in decent shape."

As we have learned this season, no lead is safe for these Knickerbockers. The Nets shaved seven points off the Knicks' advantage in the third quarter before pummeling New York in the final frame. Brooklyn poured in 38 points in the fourth, while the Knicks could muster only 19. 

Nets rookie Cam Thomas became the latest NBA player to enjoy a coming-out party inside the world's most famous arena, scoring 16 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter.

Thomas was 7-for-10 in the fourth. The entire Knicks team was 8-for-26, including missing ten of their 11 attempts from downtown. 

Incredibly, last night's loss was the third 20-plus point lead the Knicks have blown over the past two weeks. And it was the third consecutive game in which New York has been flat-out embarrassed in the fourth quarter. 

During this three-game stretch, the Knicks have been outscored 94-48 in the fourth. 

Think about that for a second. New York has been outscored by 46 points over 36 minutes of 4Q action. They've shot just 26% from the floor (17-of-64) and 8% from downtown (2-of-25). They have as many turnovers (12) as assists. 

As awful as the Knicks have been offensively, they've been just as bad on the defensive end, allowing opponents to score those 94 points on just 70 possessions (which equates to a defensive rating of 138 points per 100 possessions).  

Dating back to their West Coast road trip, the Knicks have been outscored by 74 points in the fourth quarter and overtime over their last six games (193-119). They have shot below 30% from the field and 18% from the field deep.