STARKS’ REALITY: Former Knick John Starks talks with struggling guard J.R. Smith yesterday. Smith and the Knicks face elimination tonight in Game 5 vs. the Pacers at the Garden. (Jeff Zelevansky)
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Off to the side of the Knicks’ practice court yesterday, standing in a corner outside the locker room, J.R. Smith was talking to reporters when assistant coach Darrell Walker chimed in.
“Got your back to the corner, huh, young fella?” Walker said. “You know what happens when they back a dog in the corner?”
“Oh, I know,” a cheerful Smith replied. “We’re gonna find out.”
Their season on the brink of extinction in tonight’s Game 5 at the Garden, the Knicks desperately need Smith to locate his shot. The NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year is engulfed in an absolutely miserable shooting slump, going 26-for-91 (29 percent) from the floor over his past six games.
In Tuesday’s Game 4 loss to the Pacers, a defeat that dropped the Knicks in a 3-1 series hole, Smith began the night by clanging 13 of his first 16 shots before finishing 7-for-22.
“I take the blame for this whole series,” he said after the game.
“Because I haven’t played the basketball that I’m accustomed to,” Smith explained yesterday. “I haven’t been playing — you can get to the basket, get to the free throw line, making shots, making a conscious effort to rebound and do all the things I’m supposed to do as the quote-unquote ‘sixth man’ but the player that my teammates need me to be.”
Smith said his confidence remains strong and said his teammates told him “to keep [his] head up, keep playing.” He even convened with former Knicks gunner John Starks, who now works for the club.
Starks knows something about coming up small at the most inopportune time. When the Knicks’ 1994 season was on the brink in the NBA Finals, Starks shot a memorable 2-for-18 in a Game 7 loss to the Rockets.
“I’m sure he’s had conversations with him,” coach Mike Woodson said. “We all talk to J.R.”
If the Knicks lose tonight to end their season, it’s possible it could be Smith’s last game with the team. He can opt out of his contract this summer.
“I’m not even worrying about that. Honestly,” Smith said. “I’m so worried about playing well and having my teammates play well that that’s the last thing on my mind.”
mark.hale@nypost.com