How bad has it gotten for the Knicks? A day after losing to the worst team in the NBA, Mike Woodson acknowledged the sobering reality they have to play a near-perfect game to win.
That’s how small their margin for error is, driven home by Monday’s 101-98 loss at woebegone Milwaukee when Bucks point guard Brandon Knight hit a game-winning 3-pointer over Raymond Felton with 1.4 seconds left.
“When I reviewed the tape, it should never have gotten to that based on how we played. Those are the things that creep in, the little things that hurt you. We missed a lot of free throws [Monday] night you could point the finger at as well,’’ Woodson said. “Again, right now we’ve got to play almost perfect basketball to win, and that’s OK. But we’ve got to get that accomplished.
“It wasn’t the case last year obviously. But I don’t think any one of us can sit here and beg and hope that somebody loses. I don’t like coaching like that. I like to control our own destiny. You sit home and hope that Toronto loses, or Brooklyn loses. I mean hell, we’ve just got to worry about ourselves and make it happen for ourselves. Then you sleep better at night.’’
Tyson Chandler admitted surprise that needing a sense of urgency is even an issue.
“Yeah,’’ Chandler said. “I definitely didn’t expect to be sitting where we’re sitting. That’s our circumstances and we have to try to pull ourselves out.”
The Knicks (19-29) have been wildly inconsistent, following a five-game winning streak with a five-game losing skid, coming back to win four straight before now losing back-to-back games. They somehow came into Tuesday just 1 ½ games behind Charlotte for the final playoff spot, and host Portland on Wednesday.
“You never want to get to this point where you got to apply more pressure to win. But we put ourselves in this position so now we really got to focus in now to get these wins,’’ Amar’e Stoudemire said.
“I’ve said this for the last two, three weeks: Every game is important,’’ Woodson said. “We’re still a game-and-a-half out of the eighth spot. We haven’t gained any ground, we haven’t lost any ground. I’m trying to gain ground, get these guys to understand we need to gain ground.
“[Wednesday’s is] a big game. Every game is a big game for us. [Monday] night, after reviewing the tapes, there’s a lot of things we just didn’t get done that we’ve got to clean up. If we do that, I know we’ll put ourselves in position to win games. It’s the little things now that are beating us.’’
Woodson did not offer any update on Kenyon Martin, who missed Monday — and seven of the last eight — with a sore left ankle.