AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Carmelo Anthony admitted he’s out of words and the Knicks are mercifully running out of season.
The Knicks have resurrected their Team Titanic identity of earlier this century as this 2013-14 disaster keeps getting worse. At least the nation didn’t see this latest fold.
The Knicks, after their bumbling start Sunday in Chicago, were ready this time at the opening tip and built a 14-point first-quarter lead with a new starting lineup that included Amar’e Stoudemire and J.R. Smith.
Of course, Team Titanic blew it and got creamed by the stumbling Pistons, 96-85 before a very sparse crowd at The Palace. The 11th-place Knicks lost their seventh straight — their longest skid since losing eight straight in February 2010 — to fall 19 games under .500 at 21-40, pretending to be in a playoff race, 6 ½ games out of the eighth seed.
“At this point, man, I’m kind of running out of comments to talk to you guys about,’’ Anthony said. “It seemed like it’s becoming repetition, saying the same thing over and over. We got to try to find something else to talk about.’’
How about Raymond Felton?
He had a particularly terrible night, shooting 1-of-9 for four points and is now 7-of-32 since his arrest on illegal weapons charges.
All of the Knicks guards struggled mightily as Smith started 0-for-10 before making meaningless shots in the final two minutes to finish 5-of-17. Felton, Smith, Iman Shumpert (2-of-7) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (0-for-6) combined to shoot 8-of-38.
“I have no answers,’’ Felton said. “I’m beyond frustrated. The ball isn’t going into the basket for me. It’s something I’m fighting with mentally — missing shots I normally hit. I had a floater tonight that went down in the rim and came out. I had a 3 went down in the rim and came out. At some point, it will go away. I can’t not take the shot because it will mess up our offense.’’
Felton vowed he wouldn’t let his legal woes affect his basketball.
“My personal life is my personal life,’’ Felton said. “But when you’re dealing with something, it’s on your mind. But I try not to let it come in my job.’’
The ninth-place Pistons broke a four-game losing streak in holding the Knicks to 38.6 percent shooting and 41 points in the second half.
There were no signs begging Anthony to leave the Knicks, as there were Sunday when the Knicks were blown out for the third straight time, but any place is better than being a Knick nowadays as Mike Woodson carries on as a dead-man walking head coach. The Pistons already fired their coach, Maurice Cheeks, last month, and are led by interim John Loyer.
Woodson made yet another starting-lineup change in a series of them Monday — going with Stoudemire and Smith to replace Shumpert and Pablo Prigioni.
Anthony and Stoudemire combined for 50 points, with Anthony scoring 28 and Stoudemire adding 22 on 9-of-11 shooting.
“Right now, we’re searching, we’re trying to find combinations,’’ Woodson said at The Palace, where he once won a title as an assistant coach to Larry Brown.
Tyson Chandler, fresh off a 22-rebound game, added 18 more, but that was no match for the 26 grabbed by Pistons center Andre Drummond.
The original Team Titanic of this century was captained by Brown, who shipwrecked the franchise in guiding it to a 23-59 record in 2005-06.
Team Titanic II was the Isiah Thomas-coached club of 2007-08 which started training camp in Charleston, S.C. with “Zeke’’ still in court fighting sexual harassment charges. It also wound up 23-59.
Team Titanic III, captained by Anthony, just might have hit the iceberg with the most force when you consider the high expectations and notion The Captain may abandon ship for calmer waters this summer. In addition, the Knicks’ all-but-certain lottery pick now belongs to Denver.
The Knicks led after 10 minutes, 25-11, when a Stoudemire-Prigioni pick-and-roll led to a Stoudemire flying dunk. End of highlights.
“It’s very disappointing when you build a lead like that and you don’t win the game,’’ Chandler said. “We got stagnant. We didn’t get up and down the floor like we did in the first half.’’
But as it has all season, the early big lead disappeared.
The Knicks led just 44-39 at halftime before folding completely. The Pistons went up 57-52 midway through the third period as Drummond swept past Stoudemire on a driving layup, got fouled and converted the three-point play.
In one illustrative series late in the third, Anthony dribbled left, dribbled right and dribbled forward before the buzzer sounded for a shot-clock violation.
He dribbled to nowhere.
Which is where Team Titanic III finds itself.