MINNEAPOLIS — Call it “The Lost Weekend.” And now it looks like “The Lost Season.”
Following up a pitiful showing in Washington Saturday, the Knicks crashed and burned in Minnesota in worse fashion last night at Target Center.
The Knicks got blown out in the second half by the even more pitiful Wolves, 112-91, as they removed themselves from the playoff race until further notice.
After building a 15-point lead in the first quarter against the 11-38 Timberwolves, the Knicks showed no heart and gave up 63 points in the second half.
Their bench — minus injured Al Harrington — gave the game away as the Knicks dropped 11 games under .500, tying their 3-14 record for their lowest descent.
And the Knicks have dropped six games behind the eighth and final playoff spot. Bring on July 1.
“It’s frustrating losing ground,” Jared Jeffries said. “Charlotte and the Bulls are jockeying for position. We have to keep pace.”
The Knicks (18-29) finished up a once-promising January at 6-9 after an 3-0 start.
Last night, they capped a miserable week that began last Sunday with a record 50-point home loss to Dallas. It also included David Lee being shut out of the All-Star Game, a heartbreaking Garden defeat to Toronto and this rock-bottom weekend — back-to-back road stinkers against league dregs, Washington and Minnesota.
The Wizards notched a team record 24 offensive rebounds Saturday. The Timberwolves secured 16 last night and pounded the Knicks on the glass, 58-36.
There is no excuse for falling behind by as much as 23 points in the fourth quarter to Minnesota — even if Harrington was missing for the second straight night with a swollen left knee.
It was Harrington’s call to miss the last two games. Indications were the coaching staff hoped he would give what he had.
“Obviously they want me to play, but I can’t stop,” said Harrington, referring to pulling up on drives. “I wouldn’t be effective.”
Harrington is playing for a new contract and perhaps is thinking subconsciously about protecting his statistics. Ironically, Harrington said before the game, “Everybody should be hitting the panic button at this point, doing whatever it takes to get wins.”
The panic button has been slammed and now a Feb. 18 trading-deadline deal is probably about clearing out more 2010 cap space — with rumors the Knicks are trying harder then ever to ship Jeffries’ long-term deal.
The Knicks got off to a great start — grabbing a 22-7 lead, six minutes into the game — just like last Tuesday when they rolled over the Timberwolves 15-0 at the outset and cruised to a 132-105 victory at the Garden — the lone bright spot of the week.
But the Knicks’ bench gave it all back, and their rotation is in shambles.
Nate Robinson rushed shots and missed most of them, finishing a dreadful 1 of 10 for four points, with two turnovers and one assist.
Coach Mike D’Antoni’s three chief, pre-garbage-time bench guys — Robinson, Jonathan Bender and rookie Jordan Hill — combined to shoot 2 of 17 for six points.
Even if Harrington misses Wednesday’s game vs. Milwaukee, D’Antoni said he still is not inclined to dust off Larry Hughes, who’s played just two games and 15 minutes in January but was a key to their 9-6 December.
“Once we went to the bench, it seemed the energy came out of us,” D’Antoni said. “We didn’t get a whole lot of play from the bench and gave them hope.”
Like Mike Miller did to them Saturday night, Kevin Love hurt the Knicks from inside and outside, racking up 25 points, and Al Jefferson damaged them inside with 22 points.
“We got soft on defense,” Jeffries said. “They got deep post-ups, got easy layups and we fouled them too much.”
After Wayne Ellington hit a 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer and Jefferson scored on a jump hook with 8:37 left, the Knicks called timeout and Lee showed his frustration, picking up a technical foul, throwing the ball, hitting the referee, who had turned away.
Lee denied it was intentional.
“If it was throwing it at him, it wouldn’t have bounced five times,” Lee said.