The New York Knicks are an absolute disaster right now.
A 103-99 loss to New Orleans on Sunday stretched their losing streak to nine games — the team’s longest stretch without a win since 2006. The Knicks have also dropped a franchise-record seven consecutive home games and topped the 100-point plateau just twice in 16 games this season.
Things have gotten so bad at Madison Square Garden that even the crosstown Nets — by far the NBA’s most disappointing team thus far — lead the Knicks by 1 1/2 games in the Eastern Conference standings.
Carmelo Anthony, the team’s leader in minutes, points and rebounds per game, tried to sum up New York’s struggles after the loss to a Pelicans team that was without forward Anthony Davis for much of the game.
“I think we’re playing to lose rather than playing to win right now,” Anthony said, via ESPN.com. “When you lose games the way we’ve been losing them at home, on the road, you start thinking a lot. You start playing a little tense. You start playing on your heels.
“We just can’t seem to get it together. We can’t seem to figure it out.”
If the Knicks do plan on getting it together, now would be the time to do so. Four of the team’s next five games — beginning Thursday night in Brooklyn — are against teams outside the playoff picture in the East, and New York does not play against a team that currently has a winning record until Christmas Day, when Oklahoma City comes to town.
