NBA

Clippers crush Knicks on day full of losses

On one level, it seemed like a total Bizarro Garden. J.R. Smith played well, drew comments from his coach — positive comments. Jeremy Tyler, he of the 11 minutes on the season, was the first big man off the bench. Need more weird? Carmelo Anthony missed 19-of-23 shots — and still had something of a milestone night with his second career 20-20 game.

But then there was the return to their early season struggles. The Knicks got medical news beforehand on Amar’e Stoudemire and Kenyon Martin. Naturally, it was bad. And one night after an “embarrassing” loss, in the terminology of Anthony, the Knicks endured yet another complete collapse after halftime, falling 109-95 to the Clippers Friday night.

“It seems like it’s always something, but we’ve got to figure it out. We’ve got guys injured, we’ve got guys hurt,” said Anthony, who emphasized he does not want the Knicks to slip back to their losing ways.

“I don’t want to go back to that place. I felt like we were making strides forward. Hopefully we can continue making those strides.”

The worry is the Knicks are reverting back to the team they were before they started the New Year winning six-of-seven. So when the start of a possible make-or-break, eight-game homestand was history, the Knicks were riding a three-game losing streak and have seemingly more questions than answers.

“Either I got to change the lineup or we just got to get our starting five clicking,” said coach Mike Woodson, responding to inquiries about why his starting backcourt of Raymond Felton and Iman Shumpert poured in five combined points, all by Felton.

But there was a lot of disappointment to spread around. Despite scoring 26 points and grabbing 20 rebounds for the Knicks’ first 20-20 game since David Lee did it in 2010, Anthony shot a woeful 4-of-23 from the floor. He picked up 16 points from the free-throw line (not a single miss there).

“It was a tough one. It was a tough night all the way around,” Anthony said. “Rebounding the basketball, trying to get in the paint with DeAndre [Jordan, 11 points 16 rebounds] and Blake [Griffin, 32 points] and their whole team. It was just a tough night overall. Them 20 rebounds were definitely well fought for.”

Somewhat following the script they employed in Indiana on Thursday, the Knicks started well, were tied at the half. And then they unraveled. Up 65-62 with 4:05 left in the third quarter, they came apart as the Clippers went on a 14-2 run for a 76-67 lead entering the fourth quarter, when the Knicks’ deficit swelled to 19.

“It was just a situation where we kind of went away from what was working well in the first half,” Tyson Chandler said. “We struggled to score and then they start piling on punches and it seems like every shot they hit is like a five-point play because we’re really struggling to score.”

Suffice it to say, it you shoot 35 percent from the field, you struggle to score. Again, the Knicks experienced a nightmare third quarter, getting outscored, 26-17, while shooting a nauseating 4-of-22. Their last field goal in the quarter came at 5:09.

The Clippers’ Blake Griffin fends off the Knicks’ Jeremy Tyler. Griffin scored 32 points.Getty Images

“It’s tough but the thing is I’m never going to hang my head and I’m going to make sure nobody in this locker room does. The thing is we have to fix it, Chandler said. “We have to attack the problem head on. There’s going to be no pity parties.

“It’s about us coming together and understanding our personnel and what works best for us on the basketball court. It’s collectively from the coaches down, coaches and players. It’s all of us. Everybody in this locker room and every coach that’s signed on with the Knicks organization, all of our faults and we got to take it.”

We’ll, they’ve taken it on the chin three straight games, two straight nights. They got a season-high 24 points from Smith — but little from the starting backcourt. Stoudemire and Martin, are out for roughly two weeks with ankle injuries. They are home for seven more games. But even that is no guaranteed cure, they’re 7-13 at the Garden.

“Despite these last couple games I think we’ve got a great stretch that can work in our favor if we get some things right, adjust some things and figure it out quickly,” Anthony said.