If LeBron James is crazy enough to take the leap this summer, he must realize he could join the worst team in Knicks history — Team Titanic version 3.0.
The franchise was born in 1946. Last night, the deplorable 2009-10 Knicks set the mark for worst start in franchise history. The pitiful Knicks fell to a humiliating 1-9 after another loss, 121-107, to the dysfunctional Warriors, after which they got booed leaving the Garden court.
No Knicks team has ever been as bad as 1-9 after 10 games. They genuinely appear on the way to post the worst record in franchise history. Afterward, coach Mike D’Antoni called his team “zombies.”
Larry Brown’s Team Titanic club of 2005-06 holds the worst 82-game record in Knicks lore at 23-59. That was matched by the Isiah Thomas-coached Team Titanic II in 2007-08.
Now, the D’Antoni-led Team Titanic 3.0 is sinking faster than those teams. They continued to smack against the ocean’s bottom by playing wretched defense against the 3-5 Warriors and committing 21 turnovers. The Knicks fell to 1-6 at the Garden and the historic 10-game start only gets worse with five of the next six games on the road.
As a despondent David Lee walked out of the locker room, he muttered, “This is crazy.”
“We should be [upset],” Al Harrington said. “We’re not that bad a team. We’re not prepared for this. We never thought we’d be 1-9.”
It’s all unraveling. Nate Robinson got into a verbal spat with assistant Herb Williams. Robinson came back from a six-game absence and couldn’t shoot (3-of-9) but shot off his mouth to Williams, who tried to tell Robinson about positioning on an offensive set. Robinson yelled at Williams and turned away. Williams waved his hand at Robinson in disgust.
D’Antoni is also a lost soul and has to take blame even if his roster is sickly. D’Antoni is off to the kind of start that puts coaches on the hot seat, but his relationship with James makes him untouchable.
“It’s a long list of things,” D’Antoni said. “Our lack of fight is the most disappointing thing.”
D’Antoni can’t find the right combinations. He doesn’t have the Knicks playing defense. His desperation was apparent when he started out-of-the-rotation rookie Jordan Hill in the second half, perhaps looking ahead to next season already. Hill committed four fouls in nine minutes.
“It’s just that we had some zombies out there,” D’Antoni said of the move.
The Warriors spent the night driving to the hole with ease, and dishing off to open teammates by the rim. They shot 58.3 percent, scoring an obscene 58 points in the paint.
“We’re a much better team than that,” said Chris Duhon, who has been disastrous. “It all comes down to us fighting and competing. I’m probably the main culprit. We can’t worry about what happens on the other end offensively. We’re not competing. We’re letting everything bother us, every little turnover, every missed shot. I’m the main culprit and I take full responsibility.”
Duhon, who had no field goals in three of the last four games, was dreadful again, 1-of-7, scoring five points. He was booed after he airballed a runner in the third quarter.
The good thing is the Knicks won’t play again until Wednesday in Indiana and have a good full four days to think about their role as the shame of the city.
“It’s not like we’re losing by one point at the buzzer,” Lee said. “Golden State at home is a game we should win. No disrespect to Golden State. Teams talking about playoffs win games at home against teams with a below .500 record.”
Four Warriors scored 22 points or more, led by Stephon Jackson (23), the malcontent whom coach Don Nelson played for the whole game but the final 35 seconds. Nelson showed he can even whip the Knicks without rookie Stephen Curry, the Knicks’ draft target, who played just 2:35 in a surprise benching. But Curry still managed to block a Lee drive in the final 30 seconds — a bad ending to an awful night and season.