Knicks fade late in loss to Jazz to end road trip with dud

There was no save from Utah killer Austin Rivers in the first half on Tuesday. The former Knicks goaltender, who had previously fallen, lost 25 points, a career-high 12 minutes of the first half and landed his first 10 shots – including five from 3 points.

And the Knicks were beating the Jazz like they did earlier this month when Rivers scored the last 14 points of the game.

But the magic stopped for Doc Rivers’ son. Rivers pushed on a record, picking up his third foul with 4:30 to go in the first half. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau decided to take Rivers off and it destroyed his perfect game.

The night has never been the same. Rivers didn’t come back until 4:11 in the third quarter and lost his hottest hands.

The Jazz rallied 15 points with robust defense and dominance from Rudy Gobert to take revenge against the Knicks, 108-94, at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.

Rivers finished with those 25 as the Knicks (8-11) finished the four-game trip West at 1-3. Rivers missed all four of his shots in the second half as the Jazz went down to 3 and the Knicks gave up the last three games of the trip after clinching the opener against Golden State.

“They did a good job in the second half [on Rivers], which we knew they would do to trap him and get the ball out of his hands, ” Thibodeau said. “And then it becomes important for us to attack the blitz in the right way. It’s something we’re generally pretty good at. ”

Asked if he thought he would keep Rivers with three fouls given he was on the story path, Thibodeau said, “I just felt at that point, like it was for. us offensively, I thought we would do what we did. But it occurred to me to leave him there. ”

Rivers said it was “understandable” Thibodeau shot him.

“It was definitely not the coach,” he said.

Instead, maybe it was the team fatigue that Rivers spoke of ahead of the game. Utah started the fourth quarter with an 11-0 run to end it.

“Maybe the guys are dead,” Rivers said afterward. “Looking across the floor with five minutes left, it didn’t seem like we were ourselves as a unit. ”

The Knicks were still leading by 13 until the collapse of the second half. The Jazz were started by Mike Conley in the third quarter – he scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half – and Gobert was superb with 19 points and 18 rebounds.

The Jazz beat the Knicks for 17 offensive rebounds with Knicks center Mitchell Robinson not nearly as strong as he needed to be against one of the NBA’s elite centers.

Robinson played 31 minutes, but after the game he tweeted, then deleted, “Someday they’ll let me play.

The Knicks center could have been referring to his minutes, the lack of offensive chances he gets other than alley-oops or referees. Robinson had just seven points on four shooting attempts and committed just two fouls.

Meanwhile, Rivers was hunted down upon his return at the end of the third.

“The second half was different – every pick and roll was a blitz,” Rivers said. “They charged. I’m not going to force any punches to increase my numbers. Maybe I should have thought about it again. ”

Rivers said the young Knicks weren’t prepared for the Utah attack in the second half.

“I knew how they were coming out of it,” Rivers said.

“The first part of [our] the defense was pretty good, ” Thibodeau said. “But when we gave them a second, third chance, it’s hard to beat a team like that on the road. It was probably the biggest disappointment. ”

It was an odd day for Rivers, who spoke to the media after the morning shoot and touched on two topics – Kobe Bryant’s mentorship on the anniversary of his death and the state of ” fatigue ”of the club.

The Knicks have played 13 of their first 19 on the road.

“Oh, we’re really tired,” Rivers said Tuesday morning. “Our schedule, I would challenge anyone to set their schedule up against ours. I don’t know how a schedule could be more difficult than what we played. ”

Rivers entered the game struggling, having scored just seven points in the previous four games.

As the game unfolded, Rivers looked like Bryant for the first half. Then the whole squad seemed zapped in the final two quarters as the Jazz won their ninth straight game to move up to 13-4.

“He helped me in times of doubt and in times of failure,” Rivers said of Bryant. “He came to see me and told me about all my games, especially at the start [in New Orleans] when I was young and struggling.

At least Rivers’ 25-point performance topped his father’s Knicks record of 24 points in 1993. Rivers narrowly missed a Knicks record of 11 of 11 shots to start a game.

In the third quarter, Rivers’ contested pull-up bounced off the rim on his 11th attempt, failing to match the team record shared by Johnny Newman, Bernard King and Robinson.

Rivers had no help. Rookie point guard Immanuel Quickley, the star of Portland’s Sunday loss, finished 1 of 11 on the field. Alec Burks, facing his former team, was worse, 3 of 14.

“We’re learning from this,” Rivers said. “How many times have we been 13 at halftime?” Not too much.”