NBA

Knicks embarrassed by Pacers, J.R. Smith ejected

INDIANAPOLIS — The Knicks hadn’t played in a week because of the All-Star break. It looked like they hadn’t played in a year.

They are a mess, and picked the worst time to show their worst qualities on the eve of the trading deadline.

In their first game out of the break, the Knicks didn’t just get humiliated last night by the Pacers, they lost their composure again and couldn’t have looked further away from being championship material in getting destroyed, 125-91, Wednesday night at Bankers Life Field House.

It’s crisis time after their fourth loss in five games.

“We didn’t show up,” coach Mike Woodson said. “They whipped our [butt] from beginning to end. It’s unacceptable. We just didn’t compete. Our effort was non-existent, like we were still in the All-Star break. I’m very shocked. I thought we had a good practice and nothing carried over. We can’t play like this and stay at the top of our division. That’s not going to happen.”

“There wasn’t no effort,’’ Anthony said. “We didn’t compete tonight. Hopefully this game will give us a wake-up call.”

Anthony said he is not expecting the Knicks to make a deadline move.

“I don’t think nothing is going to happen,” he said. “I don’t think so.”

Woodson said before the game the Knicks didn’t have any trades working, but certainly they looked in need of heart transplant after falling behind by 39 points in the third quarter. Woodson ended his postgame press conference prematurely, bolting after being asked if he needed to make changes.

The Knicks (32-19) got outclassed, outhustled and battered. Their lead over Indiana for the second seed in the East is down to a half-game, with the surging Nets only one game behind and the Bulls just two back.

Most alarmingly, the foul-plagued Knicks looked like a team with no leadership. Woodson never looked so puzzled after his team was outscored 44-26 in the second quarter and 74-44 by halftime.

“We got our [butt] whipped,” Tyson Chandler said. “It was a good old [butt]-whooping. When you get beaten this bad, it’s everybody from the top down.”

The lowlight came when J.R. Smith tried to bait Brooklyn’s Lance Stephenson into a fight in the final seconds of the first half. Smith was later ejected after jawing and gesturing at the referee, picking up his second T. Replays were inconclusive if Smith gave the middle finger.

“Getting down so much was frustrating to our team,” Smith said. “We didn’t know how to handle it.”

Pacers All-Star Paul George scored 20 of his 27 points in the first half. Meanwhile, Anthony departed with five fouls with 10:08 left, finishing a terrible evening with 15 points on 7-of-21 shooting. Stephenson, out of Lincoln High, put on a powerful display of Brooklyn-style dunks and finished with 14 points (5-of-8 shooting).

The Knicks shot 33.7 percent and made just 5-of-28 3-pointers. The Pacers nailed 53.2 percent of their shots during their dunkathon.

“For us to shoot 33 percent from the field and 17 from 3, that’s our game,” Anthony said. “It put a lot of stress on the defensive end.”

As the Knicks got bombarded in the first half, the game got chippier. Knicks starting point guard Raymond Felton elbowed Jeff Prendergast in the back with 2:02 left, earning a flagrant. Then the humiliating half ended in unfortunate fashion as Smith, a Freehold, N.J., native, tried to lure Stephenson into a border duel. Smith kept jawing at Stephenson and continued as the buzzer sounded. They picked up double technicals. Anthony came over to Smith as he left the court and yelled at him, slapping his head.

Meanwhile, Knicks assistant Jim Todd began screaming at Pacers head coach Frank Vogel as Smith and Stephenson were separated.

Smith had to be ticked at his lousy play and the Pacers outclassing the Knicks in every way. Perhaps Smith thought the Pacers added insult to injury as George drove the lane for a tomahawk jam with 22 seconds left to put the Pacers in the lead, 74-42.

The Knicks were in foul trouble in the second quarter as both Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire (1-of-5) picked up three fouls early in the second quarter and were sitting side by side on the bench as the massacre unfolded. Stoudemire started the second half for struggling Iman Shumpert (1-of-7) and that could be a harbinger.

Stoudemire left the game with 10:02 left in the half after his third foul. He ripped off his goggles, yelled at the official and got a technical to boot. He went to the bench and looked to be simmering for minutes.

“Our guys have to hold their composure, that’s on me,” Woodson said. “I thought we lost [our] composure and that’s unacceptable. The officiating had nothing to do with us being down 30. It was our own style of play.”

marc.berman@nypost.com