Reeling Knicks need to figure things out quick

 There are more than a few Knicks fans out there whose fists are getting ready to pound the panic button. The urge is understandable because their team has lost seven of its last eight games, rarely plays defense and runs an offense that looks confused when its best players, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, are on the floor.

It’s scary that 17 games into the Anthony era the Knicks are still playing like strangers, but they are not in free-fall. This is not the Mets of September 2007, not a team in genuine danger of dropping out of the playoff picture. It is a team, however, that needs to make a stand — and soon — if it would like to turn momentum in its favor entering the playoffs.

“We just have to figure it out,” coach Mike D’Antoni said Wednesday after Orlando handed the Knicks their fourth straight loss. “I’m hoping when the calendar gets better and we get a couple of days off that we can bounce back.”

Forget waiting on the schedule — three games in the next four days — to get lighter. Because the danger is that we will be watching a team still trying “to figure it out” in the first round of the playoffs. And not watching it for very long.

There is no time like the present for the Knicks to make a statement as they play the Bucks Friday at the Garden and in Charlotte Saturday. Those teams are tied for ninth place and fighting for a playoff spot, 61 / 2 games behind the seventh-place Knicks.

Beating both would all but end talk that the Knicks are not going to make it to the postseason. More importantly, it would take a lot of pressure off the Knicks, who are beginning to look shell-shocked in the locker room after each game.

“I think this is a humbling experience for me and the team,” Anthony admitted after Wednesday’s 111-99 loss.

Winning now is not just something the Knicks need for playoff positioning. It’s something they need for their psyche. With Chicago, Boston and Miami within a few games of each other at the top of the conference, it’s hard to say whether it would be better for the Knicks to be a No. 6, 7 or 8 seed. As long as they are in the playoffs, where they finish really doesn’t matter all that much. How they are playing, however, certainly does.

Their record in March also will be forgotten as long as they are playing well heading in. How most NBA teams play in March has never been that important.

The Knicks must forget about their 7-10 record since the big trade and find themselves before it is too late. Maybe they need to sit down and watch a tape of their win over Miami, only three games into the Anthony era. The Knicks played that game as if they had something to prove, with a sense of urgency and desire that really hasn’t been seen since.

The Knicks definitely have something to prove. People around the league gleefully are taking shots, contrasting their post-trade record with Denver’s (11-4).

“When you struggle, people are going to throw bombs at the team, try to divide and conquer,” Chauncey Billups said. “Me, as one of the leaders, I’m going to try my best not to allow that to happen.”

And the best way to do that is to win.

The Dolan family owns controlling interests in the Knicks, MSG and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.