NEW YORK — The New York Knicks have made another coaching change, firing David Fizdale after barely 100 games on the job.
The Knicks cut ties with Fizdale on Friday after two straight blowout losses dropped them to 4-18 and promoted assistant Mike Miller to interim head coach.
Fizdale ran practice earlier in the day but was then fired along with assistant Keith Smart. The Knicks made no comment on the decision to release Fizdale after he went 21-83.
The Knicks have lost eight straight games, with the last two by scores of 132-88 to Milwaukee on Monday night and 129-92 to Denver on Thursday night. They have the worst record in the Eastern Conference after finishing with the worst record in the NBA last season in Fizdale’s first season.
The Knicks went 17-65 last season to match the worst record in franchise history and they are on pace to be even worse this season. New York missed out on the top stars that were available in free agency and the players they did get haven’t meshed nearly well enough.
Still, team executives expected better results, saying so with an unusual press conference to express their disappointment after a loss to Cleveland on Nov. 10 dropped them to 2-8.
Team President Steve Mills and General Manager Scott Perry said then they remained confident in Fizdale. But things didn’t get better from there, especially once the schedule turned tougher this month.
New York will turn to its 13th coach since Jeff Van Gundy resigned in the 2001-02 season. The Knicks have been one of the worst franchises in sports since, with just a single playoff series victory and a current stretch of six straight losing seasons.
TRAIL BLAZERS: Portland gave forward Carmelo Anthony a fully guaranteed contract for the remainder of the season.
The team had signed Anthony to a non-guaranteed contract last month and had until a January deadline to guarantee the deal.
Anthony, who hadn’t played for more than a year before he was formally signed on Nov. 19, has meshed well with the Blazers, averaging 16.9 points and 5.9 rebounds since joining the team.
The 10-time NBA All-Star was named Western Conference Player of the Week after he averaged 22.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists over Portland’s three-game winning streak last week.
KINGS: The former sports journalist who accused Sacramento Kings coach Luke Walton of sexual assault dropped her lawsuit against Walton on Thursday, according to ESPN.
Kelli Tennant, who alleged Walton in 2014 pinned her down to a bed in a team hotel in Santa Monica, California, and kissed her neck, face and chest, asked the judge to dismiss the case with prejudice, which precludes Tennant from filing suit on the issue again, ESPN reported.
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