Knicks' West Coast trip ends with a thud vs. Jazz

The last time the Knicks took a four-game trip out west, it was the first week of Mike Miller's tenure, and New York came home with a surprising 2-2 record to show for the four-game swing.

This time around on the West Coast, it appears the honeymoon is officially over. Miller's Knicks took a second straight blowout loss to the Jazz on Wednesday night, 128-104, dropping the Knicks to 0-4 on this road trip before heading home to the Garden on Friday.

The game looked eerily similar to the game against the Lakers on Tuesday -- the Knicks hung in there for the first few minutes, then gave up a couple runs, went down by double digits and never recovered.

Granted, it's not like New York was without excuses, missing its top two scorers (Marcus Morris and Julius Randle) and running into a brick wall of a team that had won 11 of its last 12 games prior to Wednesday. Combine that with the Knicks being on a second game of a back-to-back, and it was predictably curtains from a very early point of this game.

Silver linings were few and far between for the Knicks, but there was none more sterling than Frank Ntilikina. Ntilikina came off the bench and notched a team-high 16 points on 6-10 shooting in just 19 minutes, and also contributed three assists and four rebounds.

For a player whose biggest roadblock to success seems to be confidence, Ntilikina didn't appear to lack any of it on Wednesday, scoring in a variety of ways and looking like the only Knick who was really taking it upon himself to fill the shoes of Morris and Randle (other than perhaps Bobby Portis, who took a team-high 17 shots but converted just five).

Ntilikina came out guns blazing right from the start, notching seven points in his first three minutes off the bench in the first half. Where Wednesday's game differed from Tuesday's (which also featured Ntilikina scoring a quick seven points, strangely enough) was that Miller gave Ntilikina more time to shine in the second half. And shine, he did.

Other than Ntilikina, there wasn't too much to be happy with. Mitchell Robinson, normally a nightly beacon of hope for the Knicks, had his second straight underwhelming game by his lofty standards (six points, four rebounds, one block in 22 minutes), unironically against a second straight team with a dominant presence in the paint -- this time, Rudy Gobert.

Wayne Ellington managed to find his jumpshot again (11 points on 4-6 shooting), which should be a useful thing for the Knicks both on the court and as trade season approaches. Reggie Bullock (nine points on 4-9) drew his second straight start in place of the injured Morris and seems to have jumped Ellington on the depth chart. Perhaps if Ellington can string a few more good games together, he could be a prime trade candidate for a shooting-starved team at the deadline.

An Ellington trade could clear the way for consistent minutes for Damyean Dotson, who came into this game and notched 11 points on 5-9 shooting in 21 minutes off the bench. Dotson quietly proved (as he usually does) that he's a player with NBA skills that should probably have a role on the Knicks going forward.

Elsewhere, RJ Barrett's hot streak came to an end, as the driving style that had buoyed two straight strong efforts met its match in Gobert and the Jazz defense. Barrett wound up with just 10 points on 3-10 shooting (but did shoot 4-4 from the line, which is maybe enough to salvage the day).

The Knicks return home on Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans, who are near the bottom of the standings with the Knicks but are 7-3 in their last 10 games. Basically, things aren't going to get easier this weekend at home, with the resurgent Pels on Friday and the Heat on Sunday, who made quick work of the Knicks just a couple weeks ago.