Knicks Morning News (2016.12.01)

Chris McCullough’s dual career with two Brooklyn teams is unusual, but a split existence is not. 45 N.B.A. players have been assigned on 103 occasions this season to D-League stints.

Anthony missed two critical shots in the final stretch before making a shot with 2.3 seconds remaining to lift the Knicks.

Joakim Noah’s disappointing beginning with the Knicks hit yet another snag when the center suffered a sprained ankle.

It was a bizarre and difficult game for Carmelo Anthony. Until redemption arrived in the final two plays.

Kristaps Porzingis is one of the top-two tallest players in the NBA, and Zach LaVine is the best leaper in the league.

MINNEAPOLIS — Kristaps Porzingis and Karl-Anthony Towns were the stars of the show for 59 minutes Wednesday, both showing why they are the two transcendent gems of the 2015 draft. Carmelo Anthony may have won the game with 2.3 seconds left in the Knicks’ 106-104 victory over the Timberwolves, but the Porzingis-Towns duel became a…

MINNEAPOLIS — If Jeff Hornacek can turn Carmelo Anthony back to his clutch self from his Denver days, the Knicks coach may be worth all of his $5 million salary. After blowing all of a 17-point early fourth-quarter lead to the Timberwolves, Hornacek directed the Knicks to put the ball back in the hands of…

Now he’ll have his own place to hang after games.

MINNEAPOLIS — Joakim Noah misses him now, but admits he and his former coach Tom Thibodeau “butted heads’’ across their time together with the Bulls. Derrick Rose enjoyed his tenure with Thibodeau, but says he spent a lot of time with the coach “cussing me out.’’ There was a lot of reminiscing at the respective Wednesday…

Iman Shumpert to Phil Jackson: You’re dead to me. The expressive former Knicks guard, who idolized the former Bulls coach while growing up in Chicago, then was dealt away by the Zen Master to the Cavaliers in early 2015, issued a candid and brutal takedown of Jackson in the aftermath of a racially loaded feud…

MINNEAPOLIS — Joakim Noah’s chance at redemption will have to wait. The Knicks starter center’s struggles hit another speed bump as a sprained left ankle prevented him from facing his former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau when the Knicks held off the Timberwolves 106-104 in the first game of a home-and-home series Wednesday at Target Center….

Thursday’s Knicks News: Towns, Porzingis put on a show; Melo hits winning basket

Kristaps Porzingis finished a distant second to Karl-Anthony Towns in last season’s Rookie of the Year voting. Porzingis also finished a distant second to Towns in points in Wednesday night’s Knicks-Timberwolves game at the Target Center.

Knicks center Joakim Noah missed Wednesday night’s game against the Timberwolves with a sprained left ankle he suffered in the first quarter of Monday’s loss to Oklahoma City.

The Knicks beat the Timberwolves, 106-104, on Wednesday night in Minnesota.

Joakim Noah will not play Wednesday against the Timberwolves because of a sprained left ankle, the team announced.

Minnesota hosts New York on Wednesday at Target Center.

The eye test tells me that the Knicks are at their best when Rose and Jennings are surrounded by three jump-shooters, considering neither does a particularly good job of stretching the defense from three-point range.

Derrick Rose, whose contract expires at season’s end, has not yet discussed a possible extension with the New York Knicks. And that’s how it should be.