Hornacek: Knicks need to get Porzingis the ball more

The New York Knicks' season is only four games old, but a 1-3 start and lousy play on both ends has reflex nerves in Gotham firing. And new coach Jeff Hornacek, who benched sophomore Kristaps Porzingis for defensive reasons in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's loss to Houston, now says Porzingis has been neglected offensively.

"They've got to do a better job of getting him the ball when he's got a mismatch," Hornacek said afterward, according to ESPN's Ian Begley. "(The Rockets) were switching; a lot of times he had a 6-5, 6-6 guy on him. We have to take advantage of that and just didn't see it."

While the sample size is microscopic, the 7-foot-3 Porzingis is taking almost a shot less per game and has a usage rate almost five percentage points lower than last year. Clearly, much of that can be attributed to the arrival of Derrick Rose, who is second on the Knicks in scoring ahead of Porzingis.

Yet aside from teammates not taking advantage of the mismatches, Porzingis also just had a subpar game Wednesday: 0-for-4 from the field with three points, all at the free-throw line.