"The last minute was as painful as any the Knicks have experienced this season. The game, one they deserved to win, was right there for them. They even had three shots to take the lead and one shot to force overtime.

But those four chances were squandered and the end result was an agonizing 91-89 loss to the Celtics Friday night that had the Knicks cursing their fate, not to mention one or two calls that went against them.

"We had them on the ropes pretty much the whole game," Amar'e Stoudemire said.

The Knicks blew a 12-point third-quarter lead and lost for the 11th time in their last 13 games. They are 8-15 overall heading into Saturday night's home game against New Jersey and if Mike D'Antoni's job security is an ongoing issue, at least his players are competing for him.

"We matched their level of intensity," Carmelo Anthony said. "We came out from the beginning and played hard. We can't ask for much more than that."

How about just one more field goal? That's all the Knicks needed to record their best win of the season. D'Antoni's club scored just 17 points in each of the final two quarters as the prideful Celtics made it their mission to get the ball out of Anthony's hands.

That was evident in the final minute after Anthony drove baseline but couldn't convert the contested layup with Boston leading 90-89. The Knicks maintained possession and following a timeout, Anthony quickly found Iman Shumpert open for a corner three. The rookie missed it and after Paul Pierce's improbable 3-pointer was overturned by video replay because it left his hands a split second after the shot clock expired, the Knicks got another chance."