After the latest embarrassing loss for the Knicks, it was time for David Fizdale’s postgame press conference.
In walked Steve Mills and Scott Perry.
The Knicks president and general manager, respectively, were not there to announce any firings, but may have unofficially started the clock by impressing a sense of urgency to turn things around after a 2-8 start to the season.
“We just felt like given that this is our 10th game, we felt that we had an obligation to come and speak to you guys,” Mills said after the Knicks got run out of the Garden in a 108-87 loss to the Cavaliers. “Obviously, Scott and I are not happy with where we are right now. We think the team is not performing to the level that we anticipated or we expected to perform at, and that’s something that we think we collectively have to do a better job of delivering the product on the floor that we said we would do at the start of this season.
“We still believe in our coaching staff. We believe in the plan Scott and I put together and the players that we assembled. But we also have to acknowledge that we haven’t played at the level we expected to play at.”
Riding high after stunning Kristaps Porzingis and the Mavericks, the Knicks fell flat on their faces Sunday night. The mediocre opponent offered a prime chance to build off Friday’s win, but instead it all came crumbling back down in a game in which the Knicks trailed by as much as 30 points, prompting Mills and Perry to hold the unusual press conference.
Mills said owner Jim Dolan, who was seated courtside for most of the night for a front-row view of the misery, “still believes in the plan we put together.”
“But he has the same kind of expectations that we have,” Mills said.
The Knicks are coming off a 17-65 debacle in Fizdale’s first season at the helm. After whiffing on the prize free agents in the offseason, they filled out the roster with enough veterans who they believed would elevate the team’s play. So far, it has barely translated.
Fizdale put the loss on himself, and his players later shouldered the responsibility in the locker room. Players said Mills and Perry did not address the team after the game, but the message was already clear.
“They’re f–king right. Who likes losing?” Marcus Morris said. “We talk to them every day. It’s not like they haven’t told us the same s–t. Everybody knows. Y’all just know. It’s cool.”
Mills and Perry lamented a lack of consistency from the team. It was on full display after going from beating the Mavericks to getting shellacked by the Cavaliers (4-5) 48 hours later. All the hope the Knicks had expressed in building off the win in Dallas was quickly and emphatically flushed down the drain.
“If we had delivered that level of effort again tonight, we probably wouldn’t have come out,” Mills said.
“I can’t put my hand on what’s preventing them,” Perry said.
The Garden crowd grew restless throughout the night, with boos raining down often even after the arena had begun to empty out in the fourth quarter.
After Mills and Perry spoke, Fizdale said it “falls on me” to figure out the inconsistency. He reached for perspective — pointing out the Knicks are “two games from the eighth seed” and that a friend once told him “never overreact to the overreactors” — but later said the pressure is always on.
“I live in that sense of urgency,” Fizdale said. “I don’t need anyone to speak to get me a sense of urgency. I’m not cruising through this thing acting like it’s always like I got a bunch of time to get a team together.”