Lethargic Knicks lose to Clippers

This time it wasn't about being posterized, it was about being pummeled. This was about not being good enough and maybe failing to be prepared now that every game matters.

And after a 116-108 loss to the Clippers last night at the Garden that will go down among those troubling losses such as recent ones to the Kings and 76ers, Mike D'Antoni blasted his team's effort and made the attempt to acquire Carmelo Anthony seem much more of a necessity with 30 games left in the season.

"I just don't think we had the energy to be a playoff team," he said of a game in which the Knicks fell behind by 20 points in the third quarter.

"To me," he later added, "it was a total lack of commitment."

Amar'e Stoudemire, who had 23 points but was in foul trouble in the second half, tried to send a message to the team before the game that every win counts now that the season is nearing the final quarter and a playoff push should be under way.

"We have to have supreme focus," he said. "I guess they figured I was just talking to the wall."

Stoudemire also suggested some of his teammates "were afraid out there, like guys were scared."

Intimidated by Blake Griffin and the Clippers? Only Timofey Mozgov was supposed to have had nightmares from the last time these two teams met.

Actually, Mozgov and the Knicks managed to match Griffin and the Clippers dunk for dunk, but it was from other areas of the floor that the Knicks struggled. It was enough to get the feisty Garden crowd chanting, "We Want Melo!" throughout the second half.

Carmelo would be a much-needed shot of adrenaline to the Knicks offense, which shot 49.4 percent from the field but from three-point range (6-for-26) looked as accurate as some of the trade rumors that have surfaced in the ongoing Carmelo Anthony saga.

By comparison, the Clippers were blazing hot, and even when the Knicks finally woke up enough to cut the 20-point third-quarter deficit to three with 5:41 left in the game, Randy Foye torched them with eight straight points, including two threes at a time the Knicks desperately needed stops. Foye finished with 24 points, 17 of which came in the fourth.

Griffin had 21 points for the Clippers (20-32), who shot 54.7 percent from the field, hit 9 of 17 from downtown and snapped a four-game losing streak.

The Knicks (26-25) lost for the 10th time in their last 14 games and have the two-time defending champion Lakers up next at the Garden Friday.

"We haven't done nothing yet and we still have a lot of work to do," Stoudemire said. "We have to play with more energy. Even before the game, you could tell by facial expressions and body english, we weren't ready to go."