PORTLAND — Mike Woodson’s first win as Knicks interim head coach was a blowout over the Blazers on March 14, 2012. Woodson hasn’t beaten them since.
Woodson lost his third straight game to Portland and sixth overall Monday and now he perhaps is starting to lose his players — specifically, Iman Shumpert.
Owner James Dolan, in his interview with The Post last week, said Woodson’s job is safe because he hadn’t lost the players and has their “respect.’’ Didn’t look like it Monday.
A disastrous, spirit-less 34-18 first quarter essentially ended the night prematurely as the Knicks were pushed around, 102-91, at the Moda Center to fall to 3-10. With their next match Wednesday in L.A. against the Clippers, maybe it is time to panic, as J.R. Smith suggested last week.
“We came out not ready to play,’’ Woodson said. “We were awful. The game was won in the first quarter. We just weren’t committed defensively.’’
Shumpert, who has had a rocky relationship with Woodson, played with no noticeable passion or energy. It was rare to see him make so little an impact. He had three fouls, two turnovers, no points, no rebounds, no assists, missed all three of his shots and got beaten to every loose ball on his way to a team-worst minus-22. The trade talk looks as if it’s demoralized him, made him look indecisive.
“Iman didn’t have much in his tank in the first quarter,” Woodson admitted. “He was just out there. I’ll sit and talk to him (Tuesday) and see where his head is at.”
Shumpert said the club is in “a tough jam,’’ but wouldn’t blame the trade reports.
“I don’t think so,’’ Shumpert said. “I think we’re just losing. Losing affects everybody. I don’t think trade talks do.’’
Amar’e Stoudemire seemed ready to dig the team out of the hole before tip-off. When someone put on the Monday Night football game between the Redskins and 49ers on a locker-room TV, Stoudemire had them shut it off. “We’ve lost five straight games,’’ he said sharply.
Now it’s six. Stoudemire stayed on the court after the final buzzer for an extra 10 seconds, perhaps wondering what is going on.
“Frustration is at an all-time high right now,’’ said Stoudemire, who provided some spark off the bench with 10 points and six rebounds. “I worked my butt off to get into top shape. It’s not fun to lose.’’
Carmelo Anthony said before the game another loss would turn the “monkey on our backs into a gorilla.’’ He is now running out of metaphors.
“It’s frustrating,’’ Anthony said afterward. “If you’re happy during these times? It’s a tough situation. It’s OK to think positive but it’s tough times right now. The only way we’re going to do it is together and to dig ourselves out of this hole. But if we keep digging and digging, this hole is going to get deeper and deeper.’’
Anthony never let up and scored 34 points with 15 rebounds, but didn’t have enough support. Smith, his mediocre season continuing, was plagued with foul trouble and mustered just six points in a limp 2-of-6 outing.
“They didn’t let me play today,’’ Smith said. “I’m tired of losing — whether I score zero points or 50.’’
The arena’s name has changed from the Rose Garden, but the sad results stayed the same. The Blazers have won 11 of the last 13 games played against the Knicks in Portland and are now a surprising 13-2 with an 11-game winning streak.
The Knicks were pathetic defensively early on and got blown out, trailing by double digits after six minutes. The Blazers did everything better than the Knicks in the period, even getting to loose balls.
Point guard Damian Lillard and small forward Nicolas Batum each finished with 23 points. LaMarcus Aldridge added 18 points and Wesley Matthew pumped in 17.
Early in the fourth, the Knicks cut it to seven points before immediately collapsing again. After Andrea Bargnani hit a 3-pointer, Metta World Peace got a technical for delay of game for touching the ball. Soon after, World Peace blew a layup, leading to a Blazers fastbreak. Then Shumpert capped his awful night, throwing an errant bounce pass in the lane that was intercepted and led to a Blazers fast-break 3-pointer and 87-74 lead.
The Blazers dominated the paint early, scoring 10 of their first 18 points inside during a Portland parade of layups. Batum, meanwhile, was left open often from the perimeter and drilled 4-of-5 shots, 2 of 3 on 3-pointers. Batum had 15 by halftime.
Lillard, Portland’s fabulous young star, was left open twice at the 3-point line in the quarter and made the Knicks pay for their silly down-low doubling. The Blazers shot 52.2 percent from the field in the first 12 minutes.
Stoudemire and Shumpert talked about the Knicks’ lack of ball movement, but there’s so much more going wrong right now.