DREADING HOME
The season mercifully will be over soon, but first the Knicks will stage a six-game homestand that will determine whether they go down as the most dreadful team in franchise history.
The Knicks (14-57) need to go 4-7 in their final 11 games to avoid the franchise record for futility. Derek Fisher’s 2014-15 club had the worst overall record (17-65) in Knicks history.
The Knicks looked dead at Toronto on Monday night in the capper to their staggering road schedule that began after Christmas, but the homestand will be no picnic in Central Park.
In fact, the home cooking could turn as rancid as week-old corned beef and cabbage, because the first five games are against teams in playoff positions.
The Knicks will start their final homestand Wednesday at the Garden versus the Jazz (41-29 heading into Tuesday), followed by the Nuggets (47-22), the Clippers (41-30), the Raptors (50-21), the Heat (34-36) and the Bulls (20-52).
Nine of their final 11 games are at the Garden, where they own a 7-26 record and where this winter they set the franchise record for longest home losing streak at 18.
“It will be good for us to just settle into home and play games without having to jump on a flight and go here, go there,’’ coach David Fizdale said. “We have a lot of practice time in between those games. It gives us an opportunity to get better.’’
The young Knicks failed to withstand the road rigors the NBA handed them. After Christmas Day, they embarked on a two-week, sixgame western swing. Their mid-January trip to London soon followed.
The Knicks returned from England and had to play a matinee on Martin Luther King Jr. Day before getting over their jet lag.
The schedule beginning March 3 was rough, too, with seven road games in just more than two weeks. That may explain why the Knicks were train wrecks at Toronto. They lost a 129-92 disgrace Monday night in the second game of a back-toback after stunning the Lakers on Sunday at the Garden. Purportedly, the Knicks happened to be one of the NBA specialists in sleep management.
“We had a brutal schedule the last two weeks,’’ Fizdale said. “We had four out [on the road], came back for one, went back out and played three, came home for one and right back on a back-to-back [on the road]. Like I told them, welcome to the league.
“The schedule is brutal, and you have to understand how to prepare yourself for every one of these situations because it’s different. Preparation on the back-to-back is different than how you prepare for a normal game. It’s a lesson for all these guys on routines.’’
Calculating whether the Knicks have shown significant progress with their young players is debatable. Nobody got better on defense. They are last in the league in defensive rating (112.7 points per 100 possessions).
Fizdale hired a slew of developmental coaches rather than experienced, winning bench coaches like Mike Woodson, who could have helped their defensive game management.
The worst thing a franchise can do is teach young players how to lose.
Knicks fans are on pins and needles about June’s draft, but if the team doesn’t win the lottery or finish in the bottom three to snare Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett or point guard Ja Morant, the pickings are slim.
After the NBA’s lottery reform, the Knicks have a 59.9 percent chance of dropping to either the fourth or fifth pick. If anyone saw Duke forward Cam Reddish disappear in the ACC Tournament, that prospect is unsettling.
As far as their three most recent lottery picks, Kevin Knox and Frank Ntilikina, have suffered through roller-coaster seasons, and Kristaps Porzingis didn’t want to be part of the Knicks’ new culture.
Center Mitchell Robinson has been blocking shots at a record-setting pace for a Knicks rookie, but he hasn’t expanded his offensive repertoire and still is prone to defensive miscues.
Undrafted Allonzo Trier looks to be a keeper, while Damyean Dotson and Emmanuel Mudiay undoubtedly hit new heights. But Mario Hezonja did not, save for his one moment — Sunday’s last-second block on LeBron James.
When owner James Dolan took to the radio last week, he admitted the roster has no stars — just complementary players. He put immense pressure on team president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry to sign marquee free agents.
“It will be great to be home for a while,’’ Trier said of the homestand. “We’ve had a crazy road schedule and we will try to take care of homecourt.’’