INDIANAPOLIS — Just when the Knicks were showing a pulse last weekend, Phil Jackson’s crew went belly up on back-to-back nights. The Knicks didn’t just look dead tired at Bankers Life Field House on Wednesday. They looked plain dead.
One night after losing by 38 to Sacramento in their season’s most lopsided loss, the Knicks’ D-League roster was manhandled by the Pacers, 105-82.
Against two teams with losing records, the Knicks lost by a combined 61 points, making the notion there’s a culture change taking place at the Garden beyond absurd.
Clearly, these meaningless games are getting tougher to play.
“Every game is tough whether you’re having a losing record or not,’’ Tim Hardaway Jr. said. “We still have to go out there and compete. We’re still professional athletes. … We can’t get outphysicaled. We have to bring the physicality to them.’’
The Knicks committed 16 turnovers in the first half (they average 14 per game). And they played soft and in slow motion on defense.
For once, the eloquent coach Derek Fisher was out of things to say. After the Knicks’ loss to Sacramento, he commented on the team not having the “character and integrity.’’
On Wednesday night, he said too many turnovers “is not a recipe for success on the road.’’
Realizing the competition was Team Tri-tanic, Pacers coach Frank Vogel rested 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert and the sides looked just as unfair. Somehow, despite Paul George’s season-long injury, the 26-34 Pacers are in contention for the East’s No. 8 seed.
The Knicks, who shot 39.5 percent, fell to a league-worst 12-48 and 2-18 without Carmelo Anthony, out for the season after knee surgery.
The Knicks, who won two straight over Detroit and Toronto last weekend, are back to square one in ineptitude.
“They came out physical and we shot ourselves in the foot, we got careless with the ball,’’ said Lou Amundson, who had eight points, 10 rebounds but five turnovers.
The Knicks finished with 20 turnovers. The Pacers shot 60 percent in the first half as they took a 65-41 lead. Pacers guard Ronald Stuckey stuck it to the Knicks with 15 points in 11 minutes in the opening half.
Andrea Bargnani, after a lethargic performance against the Kings, bounced back with 25 points and Langston Galloway hit for 11 points with six rebounds and no assists. Hardaway Jr. scored 13, but shot just 5 of 17.
Galloway admitted the strain of being a top gun.
“The hardest thing is being a rookie trying to lead,’’ Galloway said. “I’m trying to help everyone buy into what we’re doing. Being a rookie I should be looking up at them but it’s in a reverse role.’’
Before the Knicks’ loss to the Pacers, Fisher said Galloway is in a tough spot.
“Langston as a first-year player is getting a master’s degree pretty quickly,” the coach said. “ He’s not being asked to play spot minutes. He’s playing heavy starter’s rotation minutes and asked to lead a team to victory when he’s not sure how to do that at this point of his career.’’
Twenty-two games left, including Saturday’s Garden contest against these Pacers to complete the home-and-home. And Hibbert is expected to play.