Knicks lose to Heat; trail series 3-0

The Knicks played without Amar’e Stoudemire, Iman Shumpert and Jeremy Lin. As it turned out, they also played without Carmelo Anthony.

Anthony said before the game he had to be “great’’ and instead he became a great no-show.

Before a fired-up Garden crowd, the Knicks fought for three quarters but fell apart in the fourth as Anthony disintegrated and failed to lead a depleted roster to a big upset.

With Anthony’s wire-to-wire dud performance highlighting a sickly offense that shot 31.9 percent, the Knicks set the NBA record with their 13th straight playoff loss. Last time the Knicks won a playoff game — April 29, 2001 — LeBron James was a high school sophomore in Akron.

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THIS IS THE END: Baron Davis can only watch in the fourth quarter as the Heat pulled away, putting the Knicks one loss from the end of their season.

With Amar’e Stoudemire sitting on the bench in a beige suit, his arm in a sling, the Knicks got shattered during a 29-14 fourth-quarter when a foul-plagued James became his superstar self and extended this five-day, first-round nightmare.

James banged in eight straight points to start the fourth quarter, finished with 17 in the period, 32 overall and the Miami Dream Team romped to an 87-70 victory and 3-0 series lead.

The Knicks’ season should mercifully end in Game 4 Sunday at the Garden to close the landslide. At least the Garden’s fire extinguishers remained intact after this blowout.

Anthony finished with 22 empty points on a dreadful 7-for-23 shooting and five turnovers, dogged by Shane Battier.

“We’re not moping around, we’re not hanging our heads,’’ said Anthony, who is shooting 34.5 percent in the series and 36.2 percent in the playoffs as a Knick. “I am not allowing us to do that.”

He is one loss away from being bounced out of the first round for the eighth time in his nine seasons.

“I wouldn’t say they shut me down,’’ Anthony said. “I am missing shots that I normally make.’’

Melo heard groans late in the fourth after missing another jumper. Highlighting the hopelessness was several Knicks bolting the locker room before reporters arrived — even ever-optimistic guys like Steve Novak and Landry Fields.

“Offensively, we just didn’t have it,’’ said interim coach Mike Woodson, who has lost six straight playoff games by double-digits, dating to his days with the Hawks. “We were so stagnant. I have to take the blame for it.’’

The blame can largely rest on Anthony, again outclassed by James. Anthony blamed the Heat attentive D, not himself.

“I think they just try to make it hard on me,’’ Anthony said. “They make my catches hard out there. They beat me up as much as they can. They throw everything at you.’’

King James was sloppy early and committed eight turnovers. The Garden relished in his early foibles with profane chants, but James made 12-of-13 free throws and finished a respectable 9-of-21.

“Melo’s a great player, man. He’s played great basketball his whole life,’’ James said. “Shane was player of the game. He did an unbelievable job on Melo.’’

With Stoudemire out with a surgically repaired hand, Woodson turned to Novak, making his first-ever playoff start and fifth of his career. He had nothing. Novak went scoreless in 22 minutes, missing both shots.

“They did a great job not leaving him,’’ Woodson said.

Novak is no longer getting the open looks he had a month ago. Meanwhile, J.R. Smith kept firing away and shot 5-of-18, overshadowing his two crazy dunks.

“They’re too athletic and they swarm and we played right into their hands,’’ said Tyson Chandler, who had 15 rebounds and 10 points. “We have to move the ball more.’’

Dwyane Wade finished with 20 points. He took over the third quarter, scoring eight straight points, including two straight 3-pointers. Anthony, meanwhile, never got unleashed, even as James sat on the bench after picking up his fourth foul in the third quarter. The Heat moved ahead 58-53 late in the third when Anthony made a blunder in the final minute, getting stripped by Wade, who went in for a fastbreak dunk.

Melo was 1-of-4 from 3-point land and 1-of-9 on treys in the series.

“They are doubling him and forcing him into tough shots,’’ Woodson said.

Holding the Heat without a field goal for a 10:09 span, the Knicks took a 40-36 at halftime before a supercharged playoff crowd. There was a 14-0 run and an 11-point second-quarter lead.

But the fun and noise didn’t last and the season looks over.

marc.berman@nypost.com

Knicks, Knicks, LeBron James, Amar’e Stoudemire, Mike Woodson, Steve Novak, King James, The Heat, Stoudemire

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Jets waive Pitoitua

The Jets cleared some space on a crowded defensive line yesterday by waiving Ropati Pitoitua.

The 6-foot-8 Pitoitua became expendable after the Jets drafted defensive end Quinton Coples with their first-round pick in last week’s NFL Draft.

Pitoitua played in 14 games last season for the Jets after recovering from an Achilles injury suffered in the 2010 preseason. He had 19 tackles and one sack.

The team also officially announced the signing of kicker Josh Brown and long snapper Derek Chard.

brian.costello@nypost.com

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Infamy one playoff loss away for Knicks

Mike Vaccaro
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On April 29, 2001, Roger Clemens allowed four hits over 7 1⁄3 innings at Yankee Stadium, earning his 263rd career victory as the Yankees beat the A’s, 3-1. On April 29, 2001, the football Giants threw five years and $20 million at defensive end Kenny Holmes, luring him from the Titans. Benny Agbayani made a couple of errors in the outfield for the Mets in St. Louis.

On April 29, 2001, Alec Baldwin found himself in hot water for having confronted a heckler … and First Daughter Jenna Bush was dealing with an underage drinking charge at the University of Texas … and Sen. Hillary Clinton weighed in on the Amadou Diallo shooting, saying, “I am very disappointed in the NYPD” …

Janet Jackson topped the pop charts with “All For You.” On TV, the finale of “Survivor: Australian Outback” eked out a win over “ER” for the top-rated show of the week. “Driven” outdueled “Bridget Jones’ Diary” at the movie box office. And on Broadway, 10 days after its premiere, “The Producers” was starting to look like it might be a keeper.

Oh, yes — the Knicks won a basketball game that night, too.

They beat the Raptors at AirCanada Centre, 97-89, to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. They did it without two starters — Marcus Camby was back in New York dealing with a family issue; Larry Johnson never left the bench. And they won anyway. It may be hard to believe, but it was a quintessential Knicks playoff win in those days: against the odds, against the grain.

“You always hear that that is the trademark of this team,” said Othella Harrington, whom the Knicks acquired from the Grizzlies midway through that season. “This team is known for when things go bad they rally together. This is a prime example.”

Well, it was then. But to be fair: That was 4,022 days ago. A lot of stuff can happen in 96,528 hours.

“Sure, it’s an incentive, but God, again, and I’m not one for excuses — this team hasn’t been together that long,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said yesterday, on the eve of the Knicks’ playoff debut at the Garden, the team already staring at a 2-0 hole and upping the degree of difficulty of their 2001 forebears, missing three starters.

“There are a lot things that are at stake here. Yeah, expectations are high. It’s been that way all year. And it’s gonna always be that way if I’m the coach. ... We still control our own destiny here. I’m thinking about Game 3, trying to get a game under our belts and see if we can force the action.”

It’s swell that Woodson doesn’t want to hang the darkness of a desperate decade and change on his team, but that’s the way these things work. There wasn’t one man on the Red Sox these past few years who was even alive in 1946, many weren’t in 1967, few could remember 1975 or 1986. But history is an inheritance in sports. Ask the Jets: Joe Namath isn’t just a voice on the radio every week during the regular season. He occupies a roster spot: chief ghost.

So it is with these Knicks. It is amusing checking out the stories of those Knicks of 2001, the first season post-Patrick, the players he left behind still lauded, nightly, as gallant warriors. They would lose Games 3 and 4 to those Raptors, then tumble into a choking sinkhole, emerging only for four playoff losses to the Nets in 2004, four more to the Celtics last year, and the first two of this quarterfinal series with the Heat.

“Nobody ever said it was going to be easy,” Carmelo Anthony said.

No, probably not. But nobody ever said it was going to be impossible, either. Nobody would ever have believed you that Sunday afternoon 4,022 days ago if you had told them that, by week’s end, the Knicks would begin a streak of 12 straight playoff losses that, if it reaches 13 tonight, will set an NBA record for postseason futility.

Forget why the Knicks play tonight: out of pride, out of defiance, out of fear. This is a record nobody wants a part of. Doesn’t matter how long any of them have been here. If it happens it’s theirs to share. Forever.

michael.vaccaro@nypost.com

Knicks, Alec Baldwin, University of Texas …, Mike VaccaroFollow Mike, Mike Woodson, Benny Agbayani, Roger Clemens ebook download, Hillary Clinton, Raptors, Kenny Holmes, Jenna Bush

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Target to stop selling Amazon's Kindle

Target Corp. is planning to stop selling rival Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle e-book reader as it runs out of stock.

Target “is phasing out Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012,” Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said.

The company has sold the Kindle at its stores for the past two years, having been the first brick-and-mortar retailer to do so. Target will continue to offer “a full assortment of e-readers and supporting accessories,” Snyder said. She did not give a reason for Target stopping sales of Kindles.

The devices have already been removed from Target’s website and staff at New York-area stores said they were not getting fresh stock.

The decision is a bit curious given the Kindle has been a big seller for Target. The move does come as Target plans to expand its offerings from Apple Inc.

To read more, go to The Wall Street Journal

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Man, what a victory!

Manchester, England — The Manchester derby went to City. Next, it hopes, is the Premier League crown.

Manchester City finished a sweep of its local rivals yesterday when Vincent Kompany’s powerful header lifted it past Manchester United 1-0 to take the Premier League lead with two games remaining.

In what had been billed as the biggest Manchester derby ever, Kompany connected off David Silva’s corner kick for the only goal in first-half stoppage time at the Etihad Stadium. City then held on for a potentially title-deciding victory; it leads United on goal difference and once again has matters in its own hands, having erased an eight-point deficit in three weeks.

“We’ve been waiting for this moment,” Kompany said. “It’s far from over, and we know that, but just to give our fans two wins over Manchester United this season — we have to finish it off.”

Manchester United, Premier League, Vincent Kompany, Manchester, MANCHESTER, England, the Premier League lead

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CHSAA baseball roundup: SFP sneaks into second place in B/Q

St. Francis Prep jumped into second place with a big win.

Andrew Cunningham had three RBIs and Aaron Acosta and Nick LoPrinzi each had two RBIs to lead St. Francis to a 9-7 win over Bishop Ford in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens ‘AA’ baseball Monday at the Parade Grounds in Brooklyn.

Mike Bekmessian had a big pinch-hit RBI single and John Mendez added a run driven in for SFP (5-3). Ford falls to 6-4.

Xaverian 13, St. Edmund Prep 4: Tommy Anselmo gave up no runs on two hits over the first five innings for Xaverian (9-0). Gabe Hernandez had two hits. St. Edmund falls to 1-8.

Archbishop Molloy 10, Christ the King 2: Greg Boyle gave up just one run in a complete-game effort and Chris Piteo had three hits to lead Molloy (5-4). CK falls to 1-9.

Holy Cross 5, Monsignor McClancy 1: James Callahan gave up no earned runs on four hits and struck out three in seven innings for Holy Cross (5-4). Tom Lentino went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, Nick LaForgia was 2-for-3 with an RBI and Sean Broderson was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Mike Guglielmi went 2-for-3 to lead McClancy (5-5).

CHSAA CLASS A

LaSalle 12, St. John’s Prep 0: Jayson Negron pitched a complete-game two-hit shutout, striking out eight for LaSalle (3-2). Negron also had a three-run double and scored twice. Devon Graham went 2-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored and Victor Rosario was 1-for-2 with two RBIs, a run scored and two walks. St. John’s Prep is 1-4.

Cathedral Prep 8, Bishop Loughlin 1: John Starace went 2-for-4 with five RBIs and Tim McQuail pitched a complete game, giving up just two hits and striking out nine for Cathedral (3-2). Loughlin is 1-1.

mraimondi@nypost.com

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Ovechkin key for Capitals in Game 2 win over Rangers

There was a two-time Hart Trophy winner on the ice last night at Madison Square Garden, but it took about 52 minutes to realize it was No. 8 in white.

Alex Ovechkin spent a total of 13:36 on ice while his Capitals won Game 2 of their conference semifinal playoff series with the Rangers, 3-2, tying the series 1-1 as it shifts to Washington for tomorrow night’s Game 3.

But with his limited ice time, it was still Ovechkin, the league’s most valuable player in 2008 and 2009, who scored the winning goal, a power play wrist shot 12:33 into the third period.

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OVI, OH NO: Alex Ovechkin looks for his shot against Henrik Lundqvist in the Rangers’ Game 2 loss last night.

“I was surprised when I turned and no one came to me,” Ovechkin said. “I had a perfect lane for the shot, and I see it and I’m going to the net.”

Playing last night on what was presumably the Capitals’ first line with Brooks Laich and Marcus Johansson, Ovechkin got off a game-high seven shots on net, while also having three blocked. A lot of that was done on the power play, as he got 3:00 on the Capitals’ three man-advantages, none bigger than the final one in the third that resulted from a Brad Richards neutral-zone interference call.

“I think it’s a different game out there,” Ovechkin said, comparing it to the first-round series win over the Bruins in seven games. “I think we have more space, especially in neutral zone and in the offensive zone because they play tight in front of [Henrik] Lundqvist and that makes more opportunity to make a play.”

This season, while under former coach Bruce Boudreau and current coach Dale Hunter, who took over when Boudreau was fired on Nov. 28, the team has instituted a more defensive style of play, one that is in stark contrast to what Ovechkin played in to begin his career.

Now with a bit more constraints on him — along with him lacking the ability or want to fully contribute in his own end — Ovechkin is in a place that he is not familiar with, getting less ice time than teammates like Matt Hnedricks and Jay Beagle.

“He’s one of those guys who’s a team guy,” Hunter said. “He’s the biggest cheerleader when guys are out there blocking shots.”

Ovechkin’s reduced ice time was most evident in Game 7 of the first round, when the team’s season was on the line and he played 16:25 in a 2-1 Capitals’ win.

“It’s [the] most important thing right now to win the series and win the game,” Ovechkin said. “If you’re going to talk about my game time and all that kind of stuff, it’s not the season, it’s the playoffs. You have to suck it up and play for the team.”

The Rangers’ fans at the Garden are also keenly aware of his struggles — just two goals and three assists in the first round — so at the eight- minute mark of each period, the chants go up against him, the same way they did against the Senators’ captain Daniel Alfredsson in the first round.

“I feel good,” Ovechkin said. “Sometimes when you’re not out there you feel like you’re not in the game. But if you have a 10-second shift or five-second shift you just have to go do something.”

Like score the game-winning goal.

bcyrgalis@nypost.com

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