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This game played out according to expectations with Turiaf's return to the starting lineup, especially with the Spurs as an opponent. Better defense, but a continuing slog on offense for the Knicks, leading to the team's 5th straight loss. This ended up being another low efficiency outing (95 points per 100 possessions), making it the 4th time in 7 games now that the Knick offense has struggled. Felton, Amare and Chandler combined to shoot 19 of 56 in a brutal cacophony of bricks that would have made Scott Skiles proud.

The game got off to a bad start when Amare puzzlingly fouled DeJuan Blair on a breakaway layup only 3 and a half minutes into the game, rather than letting the layup go, opening himself up to early foul trouble. On cue, as soon as Jeff Van Gundy started criticizing Amare on the national broadcast, Amare picked up a cheap foul seconds later, forcing him to the bench. it was a theme of the evening: a misguided play borne of good intentions leading to frustration. The Knicks wanted this one badly, but there were a few too many "effort" plays that weren't smart plays, be they double teams, attempted steals, or overaggressive fouls that led to critical points for the Spurs.

With that said, the team responded admirably to Amare's early foul trouble with a show of toughness and hustle on both ends of the floor thanks to Turiaf and Toney Douglas. TD, in particular, had his best showing in a while, stepping into passing lanes, getting deflections and steals, and looking as strong as he ever has since his shoulders started betraying him. (TD's 31 minutes in the game were only his second 30+ minute outing since early November).

Unfortunately, after Douglas and the second unit kept the Knicks even with the Spurs, things started getting away with the return of the starters in the second quarter. The Spurs built a nine point lead at the half and got it up to as much as 13 points in the 3rd quarter as their defense suffocated the Knicks. Again, to the Knicks' credit they didn't give up, hitting the offensive boards hard and clamping down on defense in the last half of the 3rd quarter, limiting the Spurs to 6 points in the last 6 minutes of the quarter and taking a 71-59 lead down to 77-71.

The final quarter was more of the same grinding give and take, with a boatload of physical play inside. In the end, despite the Knicks' headiest efforts and several opportunities to get the lead down below four, Duncan, Blair and Parker were too much. The final daggers were two critical defensive mistakes that came on errant double teams (Amare doubling Blair, Douglas doubling Duncan) that enabled the Spurs to get big baskets from Duncan and Parker and establish separation at the end.

Other bullets:

*  The Knicks got away with their share of hacking inside, but they were clearly frustrated with the contact allowed on drives and on rebounds; even when they came away with defensive rebounds, Blair in particular constantly swatted at balls, generating turnovers or near turnovers and lots of chirping from everyone from Felton to Turiaf to Amare. Miraculously, Amare avoided his 13th technical, thanks to the rare accommodating officials who seemed content to produce a few stern warnings, but nothing more.

*  Amare was the biggest casualty of the physical play: he ended up with a season high 8 offensive rebounds, a fair number coming from his own misses in traffic where the Spurs blanketed him every time he entered the lane. The biggest slippage in his game recently -- coming from defenses getting more physical, and perhaps the bumps and bruises taking their toll -- is in the mid-range area between the elbow and rim where Amare used to explode with a runner or floater when defenses collapsed or played up tightly to prevent the elbow jumper. He seems a step slower lately when making his move and more prone to having the ball stripped or getting his shot blocked. Apart from the game at MSG against the Suns, Amare has missed 21 of his last 30 shots on shots taken from inside of 10 feet in his last five games, based on numbers from Hoopdata.

It was an extremely rough night all the way around for Amare -- taking 25 shots to get 18 points, getting 5 shots blocked, and earning only 2 FTs.

* Ray Felton continued his brutal spell of shooting with only 2 of 10 shooting in the first half. He recovered somewhat by shooting 6 of 11 in the second, and I'll credit him for not allowing the shooting woes to affect the way he attacks and directs the offense. Still 7 assists and 6 turnovers to go with 8-21 shooting doesn't quite count as a bounceback for Ray, but people will take it if it's the start of a slow climb back upward.

* The defense played by the Knicks in the second half might have been the best defense they've played all year against an elite team. Their rotations were sharp, they ran out at shooters and bothered their shots consistently, and it took an exceptional game from Tim Duncan in particular (a throwback 21 points and 16 rebounds) for the Spurs to keep the Knicks at bay. Even Amare had two high quality defensive possessions on the wing against Duncan and Parker, a genuine shock to anyone who's seen perimeter players get jumpshots off him easily in the past. The Spurs were equally stingy, denying the Knick spot up shooters any comfortable looks, and frequently deflecting skip passes to weak side cutters and shooters.

* The extra minutes for Turiaf and Douglas meant a big drop in minutes for Landry Fields. Fields was solid against Manu Ginbobli on defense and had some nice hustle plays but did little on offense. Turiaf picked up the slack nicely with 10 points and 10 rebounds, including 5 offensive rebounds. As for the other wings, Gallinari seems to be slowly getting back into form -- his shot still isn't there, but he was more successful than any other Knick at drawing fouls and getting some penetration. Chandler, who's been rumored to be the Knick most affected by the Carmelo trade rumors, had another desultory shooting game and is showing signs of regression as severe as Felton's.

Shawne Williams picked up 4 fouls so rapidly that he was hardly a factor -- his best moment was a three pointer in transition at the end of the 3rd quarter that cut the lead to six. D'Antoni generally seemed comfortable allocating minutes between his primary wings and Turiaf for most of the game.

* There was a more concerted effort to run the pick and roll in this game, but all the action was with the ball handler, typically Felton -- for the second consecutive game, the Knicks got no points off the man coming off the pick and roll, according to Synergy numbers.

All in all, a very dogged, spirited effort against one of the best teams in the league. I'm not sure there's enough energy to go around for a similar effort against the Thunder on the second night of a back to back. Like the Spurs, the Thunder surely remember being embarrassed at MSG in December, being run out of the arena when they were exhausted after 4 games in 5 days. Expect lots of running as the Thunder attempt to give the Knicks similar treatment while they're still trying to work their way out of an increasingly deep slump.