Carmelo Anthony’s stripped-down Knicks are no better than a lottery team now, and the thought of collapsing right out of the playoffs is not so farfetched.
A potential historic collapse stayed on track last night. The Knicks dropped their fifth straight game and eight of their last nine as the ninth-place Bucks moved closer to supplanting them with a 102-96 stunner at the Garden.
Milwaukee (29-42) moved five games in the loss column behind the seventh place Knicks (35-37), who are 7-11 since the trade. That is a .388 winning percentage. If the Knicks started the season with Anthony, they would be on pace to be a 31-win club across an 82-game slate.
There was March Madness in Newark, but it was March Sadness at the boo-infested Garden.
Stoudemire said the Knicks can’t take a playoff spot for granted.
“We have done nothing yet,” he said. “We are not in the playoffs right now. We are the seventh seed, but the way we are going we are declining and these teams are trying to make their push for the playoffs.”
It was the second disastrous first quarter vs. the Bucks in five days. The Knicks fell behind 16-4 in the opening minutes, just like they did Sunday. They rallied but stunk out the joint in the final eight minutes of the fourth quarter as the Big Apple 3 was rotten to the core, unable to hit a shot.
At one juncture, the Knicks managed 11 straight missed field goals, went six minutes without a field goal, 10 of their 11 flubs by Stoudemire, Anthony or Chauncey Billups, who took responsibility for the loss afterward for his failure to contain Brandon Jennings (37 points).
In the final seconds, the Garden fans booed and a small handful chanted “Jeff Van Gundy” — a tribute to the former coach they want to see running this team.
Sounding like all those losing Knicks coaches over the last nine years since Van Gundy resigned, D’Antoni said of his offense is not in sync.
“Everything is so hard,” he said. “It’s not so fluid. It’s almost like mud in your engine. We’re just chugging. . . . We just don’t have presence out there. And I think we’re tight down the fourth. As soon as something goes wrong we hang our head.”
Anthony said he’s certain the Knicks will turn this around.
“I’m a positive person,” he said. “When it happens, basketball will be fun again. Everyone will be smiling again and be happy. Right now, it’s hard to smile.”
The Bucks captured the season series 3-1, giving Milwaukee the edge in the event of a tie. Jennings torched the Knicks for 21 in the first quarter on the way to 37, mixing electric layups and four 3-pointers, forcing D’Antoni to start Toney Douglas on him in the second half, with Billups moving to shooting guard and Landry Fields to the bench.
Jennings said he still enjoys making the Knicks pay for bypassing him in the 2009 draft for Jordan Hill. And now he could envision making them pay further by stealing their spot in the playoffs.
“We’ve got a keep winning and they’ve got to keep losing,” Jennings said. “The main thing is we’ve got to watch them. Hopefully they’ll lose.”
A young fan behind the Bucks’ visitor’s bench wore a white “23” LeBron James Knicks jersey. In Anthony, some fans thought they were getting something close to King James. They thought wrong.
Stoudemire finished with 28 points and Anthony netted 25 but the NBA isn’t the Fantasy Basketball League. It meant nothing. Anthony was an inefficient 9-of-22.
After reentering with 7:13 left, the Knicks down 3, Anthony missed three straight shots — a 21-shooter and two off-balance runners.
Anthony said he still is adjusting to D’Antoni’s system.
“The offense is open, a lot of movement, a lot of pick and rolls, a lot of just spacing the court,” Anthony said. “That’s something I have to adjust to. I will adjust to it. I knew coming into this system I will have to adjust my game to fit into what’s going on right now.”
James said yesterday that he figured the Knicks would have a tough adjustment.
“It’s not going to be a bed of roses,” he said.
Who knew it would be a March full of thorns ready to pop their playoff position.