NBA

Knicks’ blame game starts with Dolan

Tonight is the makeup match of the Asbestos Game, when Garden workers cleaned out the famous Garden ceiling and dust particles fell onto the court, causing a postponement.

The only difference today is the entire sky is falling on the Knicks with the Magic in town. It could get uglier than asbestos tonight at the Garden.

In the final stages of Friday’s Garden disaster versus Milwaukee, there were two chants — a “Jeff Van Gundy” and a “Let’s Go Yankees.” In a matter of weeks, the Knicks have gone from the hottest ticket in town to the hottest train wreck in town.

The ever-fashionable Amar’e Stoudemire may be gracing the pages of Vogue this month, but his offensive game has turned uglier than Carmelo Anthony getting back on defense.

The Knicks take a six-game losing streak into tonight’s battle with Dwight Howard, and are in a shocking 1-9 stretch.

There will be temptation to chant for Mike D’Antoni’s head tonight if things go badly, but truly he is not the first to blame, nor is Donnie Walsh, though both likely will be made scapegoats by owner James Dolan.

Across the Hudson River yesterday, John Calipari made it to another Final Four. Because of his ties to the super agency, CAA, which orchestrated the Melo deal and represents Chris Paul, Calipari will be linked to any future Knicks vacancy. Mark Warkentien was hired to the front office partly because of his CAA ties and gossip on Anthony and Denver.

Dolan is obsessed with establishing a good relationship with CAA, just as he was obsessed with making Anthony a Knick, according to sources, forcing Walsh into a bad basketball trade.

That is why the buck stops with the owner who apparently felt he needed to boast two superstars for his transformed Garden. So if you need to vent and chant his name tonight, go ahead. Dolan, if he shows, probably would even love it — contrarian that he is.

Perhaps “The Carmelo Era” was jinxed from the start when Dolan felt obliged to mention Isiah Thomas’ name during Anthony’s introductory press conference.

The Trade felt even less right when Dolan announced the gargantuan season-ticket price hike two weeks after Anthony’s debut. With two superstars in tow, Dolan was ready to let it out that prices would rise an average 49 percent — 173 percent in some cases.

It felt then the Knicks had not done a basketball trade but a marketing deal: “See our new glitzy superstar tandem next season in our new transformed arena!”

Since the price hike, the Knicks are 1-8. That’s karma at work.

As is his right, Dolan dominated the Melo press conference. Walsh and D’Antoni were on stage, but didn’t seem as if they were there. Dolan posed for most of the pictures, smiling like he has never smiled before.

Now that the team is falling apart, now that Dolan’s decision to gut the team in midseason has turned into a disaster with two superstars who don’t mesh and a point guard, Chauncey Billups, who looks too old, Dolan has to take the heat.

In the days leading to one of the most important trades in franchise history, Dolan, Hank Ratner and MSG sports president Scott O’Neil met with Anthony in Los Angeles during All-Star festivities, while a disgruntled Walsh was home in Indiana and D’Antoni was on a get-away with his wife in Washington, D.C.

Dolan’s got to live with the decision the next couple of years. It still could work out well if the Knicks strike gold in the 2012 free-agent market.

But more than ever, this is Dolan’s team — and Dolan’s blame.