Just like their first 10 games, Knicks rack up eight losses over the following 10
The second 10 games ended just like the first 10 for the Knicks — with eight losses. But this time, David Fizdale emerged first for his postgame press conference. No sign of team president Steve Mills, who had put the coach on notice after the opening 10 games. And Fizdale was back to preaching optimism and progress, presumably with his job safe for at least another day.
It felt like another hollow night at MSG.
“It’s really frustrating,” the coach said before launching into all the positives of a 113-104 loss Sunday to the Celtics. “But my job is to keep figuring out how to get them to (trust each other). And use these painful examples to show them. Hopefully you can keep growing from it.
“The positive side of it is that (Boston is) one of the best teams in the East. That team’s going to contend and that’s two games in a row now that we’ve pushed them to the brink. Those are positives. We had some really good contributions tonight.”
Despite Fizdale’s repeated sales pitches, the Knicks (4-16) are tied with the Warriors for the worst record in the NBA. That wasn’t the plan when Mills traded Kristaps Porzingis and spent over $70 million in free agency. Sunday at the Garden was basically Groundhog Day, a broken record of disjointed play and explanations afterwards.
The home team carried a decent lead — up by nine in the third quarter — but there was very little hope the Knicks could actually pull out a win against a better team. They’ve become quite adept at collapsing and collecting predictable defeats.
There were more valid excuses Sunday. Marcus Morris was out with a neck injury, thrusting Kevin Knox into the lineup. Frank Ntilikina logged just seven minutes before leaving with a sore back.
Still, the Knicks were tied with about seven minutes remaining. They immediately succumbed to a 15-4 run and another loss was on Fizdale’s ledger.
In 102 games with the Knicks, the coach’s record is 21-81 for the worst winning percentage in franchise his