The Knicks and the Magic have been bad this season, and this is not news. But together, they combined to be so bad that this year’s teams are now a part of NBA history.
During the second quarter of Saturday night’s contest, New York outscored Orlando 8-7. That was it -- 15 points scored in total by the two teams, which was the lowest scoring of any quarter essentially in NBA history.
(Technically, it was the lowest-scoring quarter in the shot clock era, but that’s been in place now for the last 60 years.)
More, from ESPN.com:It was the fewest points in a quarter in the shot clock era (since 1954-55), which spans 209,888 quarters played, including Saturday’s action. It was also only the third time that both teams scored fewer than 10 points each.
Orlando was 3-for-19 from the field and 0-for-4 from 3-point range in the second quarter. New York did the Magic one better (or worse), going 3-for-20 in the period and 0-for-5 from 3. There were nine combined turnovers, with seven by the Magic.
It was the fewest points from two teams in a non-overtime period this season, eclipsing the previous mark of 24 achieved three times.
Tim Hardaway Jr., who hit the late-game three that gave the Knicks the 80-79 victory, was able to find a positive in his team’s historically bad performance.
“It was 8-7 in the second quarter so our defense did a great job of withstanding that quarter,’' he said. “Even though we didn’t score, they didn’t score as well so we just had an all-around great game.’'
Hilarious.
