CLEVELAND — The Knicks confirmed last night they will be a lousy team until point guard Baron Davis comes back.
As currently constituted, this team stinks.
Davis’ debut was not last night and it might not be tomorrow in Miami, where a South Beach slaughter may await. Coach Mike D’Antoni’s job is likely safe as ownership realizes the coach can’t be judged until Davis is running this awful show.
There was no flow, no bench, no structure, no answers and no sign of Carmelo Anthony last night as the lowly Cavaliers thumped the disinterested Knicks, 91-81, at Quicken Loans Arena for their seventh loss in eight games.
It was the Knicks’ ninth straight loss in Cleveland as they fell to 7-11 — which should be the convenience store they frequent and not their record.
D’Antoni’s Knicks used to come to the shores of Lake Erie to get humiliated by LeBron James’ Cavalier powerhouse. Now they even get humiliated here in the post-LeBron era.
After such a sweet performance in Charlotte Tuesday, the Knick offense became a wreck again . The battered Anthony, dealing with a sore wrist, thumb, ankle and ego, scored just 15 points — 14 points more than against the Bobcats. But he shot a pitiful 5 of 14 — 0 of 3 on 3-pointers.
Anthony, who scored one point in Tuesday’s win, is shooting 34 percent in the last nine games he’s played and 39.4 percent overall. He’s wearing a wrap on his right thumb and his left wrist and doesn’t know if he’s coming or going.
“There’s a lot going through my mind right now,’’ said Anthony, who had six assists. “Maybe I don’t feel confident or comfortable [going to the basket]. I’ll figure it out. When you’re not putting the ball in the basket, it makes it strenuous. If you make shots we wouldn’t be talking about that. It’s messed up [his hand]. That’s all I can say about it. But I’m out there playing. No excuses like that.’’
Asked his view on the team’s demise, Anthony said, “We were trying to wait for it to come to us rather than go take it.’’
The Knicks committed 22 turnovers, shot 42.1 percent (3 of 20 from 3-point range) and the rhetoric has become as stale as the anti-LeBron t-shirts that litter Cleveland’s sporting-goods stores.
Speaking of James, the Knicks play in Miami tomorrow for the first time this season, and if Davis does not suit up, they may be severely outclassed and embarrassed. He will play a 3-on-3 scrimmage today but may not feel ready until Saturday in Houston.
For the first time, D’Antoni sounded as if he had no answers to fix this and said things are “structurally flawed.’’
“I can’t explain it exactly,’’ D’Antoni said of the offensive malaise. “We have to keep spacing, keep cutting. We’re not doing it all the time. Because we can’t score a lot of points every little mistake is magnified and everybody’s getting tight. We got to open the offense up, we got to run, we got to go and we got to move the ball and it’s got to flow and we can’t get the flow.”
Center Tyson Chandler’s frustration overflowed as he clubbed the Cavs’ pesky Anderson Varejao in the head as they battled for a rebound after a free throw in the fourth quarter. Chandler picked up a technical.
“That shouldn’t have been a technical,’’ Chandler said. “He ran up on my back on the free throw. It was just trying to get him off. Hopefully the league looks at it and sees what really happened.’’
It would be unfair to subject even David Stern to the tape of another disgraceful offensive showing.
“We’re not doing the things to put us over the hump to win,’’ said Chandler. “We took a step backward. We had an incredible game [Tuesday]. We’re just not fluid. Nothing was smooth. Everything was cluttered. Everyone was in the paint.”
Everything will be a mess. Until Davis plays.