Maybe the worst is over. Or maybe not.
With the Knicks an emotional train wreck, they’re trying a new approach — the Power of Positive Thinking.
Indications are a new edict has come down from above — either new president Steve Mills or owner James Dolan. Enough of the morose, hypercritical, gloom-and-doom talk, because it’s making matters worse. Even the normally pleasant Mills is walking around arenas with a blank expression.
The Knicks return home to the Garden Sunday from their catastrophic 0-4 road trip to face the mediocre and newly named Pelicans. The Knicks have lost eight straight to fall to 3-12 — second-worst in the East. But in the visitors’ locker room in Denver late Friday night, they acted as if the storm’s floodwaters receded and recovery was in motion following their 97-95 loss to the Nuggets.
The Knicks embark on a soft five-game patch of their schedule against the Pelicans (7-8), Nets (4-12), Magic (6-10), Celtics (7-11) and Cavaliers (4-12).
After taking full blame for the Nuggets loss, when he airballed the final shot, Carmelo Anthony turned away from the despair for one upbeat moment.
“When you play like we did [Friday], we competed,’’ Anthony said. “There’s no reason to hang our heads. It’s a bitter feeling we lost, but we took a step forward in getting better. We’re trying. We played much harder. We got the trust in one another. But it’s an uphill battle and a tough hole to get out of.’’
After the defeat to the Clippers in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Raymond Felton said the losing streak was “mindboggling.’’ In Denver, Felton spoke as if he had been hypnotized after the game.
“We looked better,’’ Felton said. “We played much harder. I think we’re starting to turn this around.
“We gave ourselves a chance to win on the road, against a good team in their building. You still hate that you lost. But you played with the effort. That’s a positive.’’
A small one, however. The Knicks fell behind 10 points after one quarter, 30-20, and were behind the entire contest before a final splurge in the last 1:40 that put Anthony in position to tie or win it.
Anthony is 1-for-his-past-15 on game-tying or game-winning shots in the last 30 seconds of games. He hasn’t hit a last-minute big shot all season, dating to his last-second miss in Chicago on Halloween and carrying over from the Indiana series last spring.
J.R. Smith sounded like the only honest player in the locker room when he said, “There are no moral victories.’’
In the past, Dolan has frowned upon coaches being too critical of players in the press. Woodson has been taken to task for perhaps being too tough publicly on Iman Shumpert.
Friday, Woodson responded to a question about Jason Kidd’s cup-throwing incident, saying: “I can’t comment on anything these days, not right now.’’
Woodson was fined $25,000 for criticizing officials, but his remark Friday suggested he wasn’t watching his words just to appease the NBA.
After the Denver loss, Woodson sounded as if he’s grasping.
“We were a little bit better.” he said. “We got to keep grinding. We’re not playing too badly. We’re just playing in spurts. We have to get to where we’re not playing catch-up basketball.’’
Injured Tyson Chandler was trotted out to the press corps clearly to spin a fluffier message, even though he still is at least two weeks away from returning.
“It’s still the beginning of the season,’’ Chandler said. “I really feel we can put together a nice, big-time winning streak. You win eight of 10 games and we’ll be first in our division. Everything seems so bad and the whole world is weighing on you. We’re still [just 15] games into the season. Things can easily be turned around.’’
The Knicks, who have lost six straight games at home since an opening-night win Oct. 30, will need to beat the Pelicans or the fluff talk will become laughable.
Woodson praised the slumping Smith and Shumpert, who played with significantly more energy.
“I thought Iman and J.R. were a lot better [Friday],’’ Woodson said. “We need them at even a higher level, but the stat sheets showed a lot of improvements.’’
Before the game, Anthony bluntly said the team “has no chemistry’’ and bemoaned the loss of leaders for last season such as Kidd, Rasheed Wallace and Kurt Thomas.
Chandler made the road trip to provide leadership, but his message can only go so far while rehabbing a broken leg.
“I know what we need to do as a team,’’ Chandler said. “I know there’s a lot of leaders in the locker room. Those voices have to get stronger in times like this, to be honest. I do what I can, but I can only do so much.’’