By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
It was so bad, coach Mike D’Antoni could do nothing but chuckle.
The Knicks were handed their worst home loss ever when the Mavericks — minus point guard Jason Kidd — trounced them 128-78 Sunday night.
The loss was so frustrating, the Knicks coach spent the postgame press conference chuckling.
“It’s hard to even comment on this game, it was just so bad in every area,” Knicks D’Antoni said.
Later, when asked if the Knicks showed effort, D'Antoni cracked: "I hope not because if it was there, we're in trouble."
After a close loss to Kobe Bryant and the Lakers on Friday night, the Knicks hung with the Mavericks for the first quarter. But from there, nothing seemed to go right.
The Mavericks went 5 of 9 from the three in the second quarter, blowing open the lead to 59-43. The Knicks, in comparison, shot 1 for 11 from beyond the arc in the first half.
Whatever D’Antoni said at halftime clearly had the opposite effect.
Dirk Nowitzki went scored 13 points in the third quarter, as the Knicks fell behind 97-56. That’s when, fans starting chanting ‘Let’s go Jets’ according to the New York Post.
New York was playing without guard Nate Robinson, who has been a valuable sparkplug off the bench averaging 12.6 points. D’Antoni inserted rookie Toney Douglas, who allowed Kidd’s backup, Jose Barea to score 11 points.
But Barea was far from the greatest of the Knicks' problems. Seven Mavericks hit double figures, led by Nowitzki and Jason Terry who each scored 20 points, while Knicks leading scorer David Lee had one of his worst nights yet — going 5 of 16 from the field.
"It was bad by everybody," Lee said in a press conference. "If we win by 50 I wouldn't say we're the best team in the east. We lost by 50 points, we're not the worst team in basketball.
Worst loss or not, the team certainly have some thinking to do before the February 19 trade deadline.
The Knicks have lost four of their last five. They face Minnesota on Tuesday.
