Knicks won't be winners until they start playing defense

J.R. Smith's head was down and he barely looked up as he spoke in a low voice, epitomizing the Knicks 13 games into the Derek Fisher era.

The Knicks are down, feeling low, and things aren't looking up. At this point, they were expected to be showing progress. They're not.

They have dropped nine of 10 and trailed by 26 and 24 points, respectively, in their last two losses in Milwaukee and Minnesota. They allowed an average of 116 points in those games.

You can't blame the triangle offense for that. The Knicks have to try harder. "We're professionals," Smith said after Wednesday night's loss to the Timberwolves. "It's not high school. This isn't college. When you're given an assignment, they expect you to execute the assignment. When you don't, stuff like this happens."

As down as the 3-10 Knicks are, they could sink to an all-time low Saturday night when the 76ers -- 0-11 entering Friday night's game against the Suns and perhaps the worst team in NBA history -- visit the Garden. A loss might send Smith, some other upset Knicks and their fans right over the edge.

After the games in Milwaukee and Minnesota, Smith provided the soundtracks for the Knicks' season thus far.

He called it "really embarrassing" that at halftime, Fisher had to challenge the Knicks to play harder against the Bucks. About 24 hours later, Smith said, "It's not fun anymore."

Losing never is, especially when the games aren't competitive. If the Knicks don't commit to defending, the only ones having fun will be their opponents.

Teams are shooting a league-best 43.3 percent on three-pointers against the Knicks and 46.1 percent overall, which is the seventh-highest percentage. They have allowed an average of 103.5 points in their 10 losses and have been down by double digits in eight of those games.

The Knicks are showing many characteristics of last season's 37-45 team, but Smith sees only one troubling similarity.

"We're a totally different team than last year," he said. "We can't use that as an excuse. We're not that team anymore. Until we come to grips with that, we're going to be just like last year -- not in the playoffs."

Publicly, Fisher hasn't shown any emotion or criticized his team. He's credited them for fighting back in some of these games. But the issue is that they're falling behind by so much that the deficit ends up being insurmountable.

No one expected the Knicks to challenge for the Eastern Conference title. Even making the playoffs seemed like a long shot at best. But only the 76ers and the Thunder, without league MVP Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, have worse records than the Knicks.

"A lot of things have to change," Fisher said. "But it's not really to talk about, it's just for us to do the work and get there. We can analyze it and converse about it, but it's still about finding a way to get the results that we want."

One positive is that Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani are expected to practice Friday and could make their debuts Saturday night. Both should help offensively. Calderon will be able to get the Knicks into their offense better than Shane Larkin has. Calderon also is a good shooter who can make teams pay if he's left open. Bargnani's strength also is scoring. But neither is a good defensive player, and that is the part of the game that concerns the Knicks most.

"We've seen us play defense," Smith said. "It's just a matter of can we do it every night? That's what the good teams do. When we start doing it every night, we'll be a good team. Until then, this is going to keep happening."

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.