On the morning after their pitiful blowout loss to the Timberwolves, coach Mike D’Antoni acknowledged the Knicks are in “a crisis.”
Carrying an 11-17 record, the Knicks host the powerful Nuggets (19-11) today in a Garden matinee, desperate to erase the stink of a five-game losing streak and Friday’s disastrous 120-107 defeat by Minnesota.
It was the strongest sign yet the Knicks are headed for another long winter of gloom and irrelevance – unable to overcome the blockbuster trades president Donnie Walsh made on Nov. 21 that created cap space for 2010, but may have ruined their playoff chances. They look spent after 28 games – a sign that D’Antoni’s speedball attack and seven-man rotations have worn them down.
“This is a crisis, without a doubt,” D’Antoni said. “The spirit is right. The hearts are in the right place. There’s no reason we don’t come out of it and start playing well again.”
“I know the fans will be [saying], ‘Here we go again,’ ” D’Antoni added. “And you should. You’re not in the locker room and seeing what we do. I’m confident we will overcome all this.”
D’Antoni indicated he may tinker with his strategy.
“We’ll think about it,” he said. “We’ll change things up, different rotations, play a longer bench. Did I run them into the ground? I’ll factor all that in and come up with a game plan.”
The Wolves had lost 13 straight before they became an offensive dynamo at the Garden. The Knicks’ defense, allowing an obscene average of 108.3 points per game, were slow in rotations as Minnesota shot wide-open 3-pointers all night and permitted Brooklyn native Sebastian Telfair to penetrate the paint with impunity.
“We’re 11-17 with a lot of basketball to be played,” D’Antoni said. “If we get back to where we were, playing well, sharing the ball, helping on defense, we’ll have a run for the playoffs.”
D’Antoni said he feels the offense “has been deteriorating for a couple of weeks” because of “a lot of 1-on-1 play.”
Chris Duhon, who was injured during Friday’s game and was sporting a swollen, bandaged eye as grotesque as the defense against Minnesota, summed up the Knicks’ frustration.
“If we make mistakes, we have to make mistakes with energy instead of being lazy,” Duhon said. “If you make mistakes and there’s a lot of effort into it, you can live with those. But if you make mistakes just being lazy, that brings the morale of the team down.”
The Knicks’ 6-3 start is a distant memory. Losing their two leading scorers, Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph and role player Mardy Collins in those Nov. 21 trades may turn out too much to overcome, not to mention Stephon Marbury’s banishment.
Tim Thomas is unreliable. Al Harrington is back to his inconsistent ways. Cuttino Mobley has retired.
Asked if this may be all the Knicks can be without Randolph and Crawford, D’Antoni said: “I’m not going to believe that. The biggest problem is Mobley didn’t come with it. That’s a 20-point scorer and veteran. That’s just bad luck. We got to factor that in.
“We can overcome this and be a better team. Whether we will or not, we’ll see. But we’re not right now.”