The Los Angeles Lakers will be looking to avoid their longest losing streak since late in the 2010-11 season Thursday when they travel to Madison Square Garden to take on the Eastern Conference leading New York Knicks at 8:00 pm ET.
This will be the first time these two teams have met this season, and will be the first appearance of Mike D'Antoni since resigning in March of 2011.
D'Antoni was hired as Lakers head coach after the team's 1-4 start to the season, marking their worst start as a franchise since 1993-94. Since then not much has improved as the team is now four games below .500 at a 9-13 record, recently coming off a road 100-94 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday.
Kobe Bryant scored a season-high 42 points in the road loss and though frustrated as he is, remains to stay patient as the team awaits the return of Steve Nash from injury.
Former Laker and Hall of Famer Magic Johnson has questioned whether the coach's up-tempo style is a good fit for the current personnel, especially forward Pau Gasol who has continued to struggle under the new system.
Gasol has missed the past five games with tendinitis in his knees and remains day-to-day.
Meanwhile, the Knicks are among the league leaders with 102.6 points per game and has allowed an opponent to reach the century mark once in the last nine contests. The Knicks held Brooklyn to 18 points in the fourth quarter Tuesday while rallying for a 100-97 victory.
Jason Kidd hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 24 seconds left and Carmelo Anthony had a season-high 45 points, giving him 79 in two games since returning from a lacerated finger.
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