Knicks on cusp of being biggest losers
THE KNICKS mercifully have just 10 games remaining this season, and they would need to somehow win every one of them to avoid officially making history for all the wrong reasons.
At an NBA-worst 14-58 entering Friday’s home game against Boston, running the table obviously is less likely than team president Phil Jackson coming out of retirement to resume his playing career.
But doing so would enable the Knicks to finish 24-58 — or one game better than the worst 82-game finishes in franchise history. The Knicks went 23-59 three times: under Hubie Brown in 1985-86, under Larry Brown in 2005-06 and under Isiah Thomas in 2007-08.
“It’s obviously tough for these guys to continue to go out there and try to fight,” first-year coach Derek Fisher said following Wednesday’s blowout loss to the Clippers, the Knicks’ fifth defeat in a row since last week’s surprising win over defending champion San Antonio. “We’re playing really good teams, we’re in a really tough stretch, we’re playing a lot of really good teams in a condensed period of time and we’re overmatched in a lot of ways.
“But our guys, they’re not quitting. It’s just tough out there. We seem to lose a body every night or each day. And so we’re just reminding the guys to keep playing and taking pride in who they are and what they’ve tried to accomplish this year. A lot of guys have done some good for themselves in terms of their careers, and not to let that go to waste, to keep trying to do the right thing out there.” Ricky Ledo, who signed a 10-day contract on March 19, played a career-high 26 minutes and scored 12 points against the Clippers, although the 6-foot-7 guard shot just 5-for-14 and committed seven turnovers.
“I think he’s just trying to be aggressive and make plays out there,” Fisher said. “Obviously we don’t want anyone to turn the ball over that many times, but I don’t know if we need to dial back the aggression.
“I think we need to continue to have guys that are willing to go in there and try to attack and make some plays happen. When you’re still getting comfortable offensively, you know you’re going to go have turnovers and some things that you can’t expect. But I don’t think it’s about reining him in, just helping him understand what his options are when he’s in those situations.”
The Celtics (31-40) lead Indiana (3141), Brooklyn (30-40) and Charlotte (3040) by half a game for the No. 8 playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
GIVE ME LIBERTY: Longtime former Knicks assistant coach Herb Williams, who was fired as part of Mike Woodson’s staff last spring, has been named an assistant coach with the WNBA’s New York Liberty under head coach Bill Laimbeer.