Embarrassing.

If someone's Honda breaks down after driving it for an extra 30 miles, even though the fuel gauge hit “E” half an hour ago, is that the car's fault? Or the irresponsible driver?

Final Score: Knicks 98 - Hornets 115
Record: 43-26

Let's start here: Everyone in the Knicks organization deserves to be heavily criticized for how the Knicks played basketball last night. That was a flat-out embarrassment. 

The Hornets are a terrible team. They entered last night with a 17-51 record and had lost each of their past two games by 30+ points. 

Yet, they dominated New York from the opening tip to the final buzzer Thursday in Charlotte. Their starting shooting guard, DaQuan Jeffries (who logged a team-high 33 minutes), is a NY castoff. 

The Hornets scored the first seven points of the contest and never looked back. Midway through the second quarter, the Knicks were down double digits, and the lead ballooned to 15 by the end of the third. A common cliche in the NBA is that every team makes a run, but that was not the case in a struggling squad's most frustrating loss of the season. 

So, yes, every player in orange and blue who stepped on the floor last night should be held accountable for that mess. 

Mikal Bridges didn't knock down a single three-pointer and didn't make his presence felt defensively. KAT had 24 & 10 but let Mark Williams and Jusuf Nurkic get too many easy boards/buckets in the paint. OG scored 25 points but was just 7-of-19 from the floor and 3-of-12 behind the arc.  

Josh Hart played 39 minutes, posted a plus/minus of -16 and grabbed just four rebounds. That can't happen.  

The loss was bad, but the team's body language was worse.

To his credit, Hart called out himself and his teammates. "The way that we're losing games is embarrassing," Hart told reporters after the loss. "So, we have to find a way to right the ship. We have to come out next game with more intensity, more desperation. Starts with myself. As someone who's supposed to bring energy. I've been atrocious the last several weeks. So, we have to get our minds prepared for the end of the season."

Again, I want to knock Hart for his lack of effort and intensity, but I know how much that man cares about winning and playing the right way. I've watched him every night for more than two years now, and he's never taken a single play off. Yet, he hasn't been 100% since returning from a knee injury last month and has looked completely gassed at times over the past couple of weeks.

Per NBA tracking data, he has traveled 96,000 feet this season (181.8 miles). That's seven marathons worth of steps, not to mention the sprinting, cutting and shoving involved in competing at the NBA level. However, he ranks second in the league in both minutes played and distance traversed, behind Bridges.

After Wednesday's dispiriting loss to the Spurs, Hart admitted he was feeling run down. "When it's the dog days of the season, and you already know your body is going to be tired, you got to keep going, and you got to find it mentally. A little bit draining mentally, but we know we got to regroup." 

Hart and teammates have played seven road games in the past 15 days. That's 14 flights in 2+ weeks.  

Of course, Hart is not going to give in to excuses. He's too proud of a competitor, and he knows people working a grueling 12-hour shift don't want to hear how difficult it is to play basketball for a living.

"It's extra effort, and we're not doing that, and that's what's embarrassing, especially for this team, especially for a Thibs-coached team, a New York-based team," Hart declared last night. "That's not what we should be doing. That's not what we're supposed to be built on."

While NBA players are tougher than the vast majority of the human population and better conditioned (both mentally and physically) than all of us, they are still human beings. The human body has limits. They can start a game, but can these players go "all out" every second of every quarter, as their head coach demands? 

I don't think Hart decided he wasn't going to pursue every loose ball like a madman. I assume his gas tank was on empty. 

If my Honda breaks down after I drive it for an extra 30 miles despite the fuel gauge moving past "E" a half hour ago, is that the car's fault? Or the irresponsible driver?

If my vehicle crashes and burns because I don't allow for proper maintenance, I can't blame the car.

And that's why, unfortunately, we are forced to beat the dead horse regarding Tom Thibodeau's rotation decisions. 

Almost unbelievably, Thibs SHORTENED his rotation vs. Charlotte. 

The Knicks were playing their third game in four nights, the seventh road game in the past 15 days, and on the second night of a road back-to-back. 

The players said they were tired and looked utterly exhausted.

How is going with an eight-man rotation defensible?

Is it surprising that New York came out flat and fell behind early? Is it shocking that they couldn't muster the energy to climb out of the hole they'd dug? 

Again, we can argue whether or not Thibs unconventional approach gives New York its best chance to win an NBA championship. However, no one can claim Thibs' methodology is commonplace in today's NBA. 

No other head coach in the league operates in this fashion. Period. 

As I noted in yesterday's newsletter, the Knicks were one of only 22 teams in action on Wednesday that saw all five starters log 30+ minutes. 

Well, New York (despite being on a B2B) was the only team in the league playing last night that forced their starters to log more than 32 minutes.

Defending the coach is warranted when the Knicks consistently win regular-season games, even if the long-term ramifications are unknown. However, when New York gets its doors blown off in consecutive contests against tanking teams while maxing out the starter's workload less than three weeks before the start of the postseason, fans will be angry and demand answers. And they have every right to do so. 

Here are the most minutes played on the road in the NBA in March:
1. Josh Hart: 319
2. OG Anunoby: 318
3. Mikal Bridges: 291
4. Karl-Anthony Towns: 283
5. Miles McBride: 259
6. Coby White: 251
7. Bub Carrington: 250
8. Quentin Grimes: 248
9. Kyshawn George: 245
10. Alex Sarr: 239

Yes, the top five all have something in common. 

Hart and OG averaging 40 MPG in March is... not ideal.

Deuce McBride was listed as questionable due to a groin contusion heading into the Hornets game and struggled mightily in the first half last night. He played better in the third quarter but limped and dragged his leg at points. He should have had the night off.

If only NY had a capable point guard rotting away on the bench…

I'll admit I'm continually amused by the "C'mon, man, Kolek is not saving the Knicks season!! Why should he play?" responses from Thibs defenders. 

Since when has "Will he save the season??" been the determining criterion for whether or not a player should average 10 MPG off the bench?

Cam Payne is not gonna "save the season." But he still plays every night.

Is Landry Shamet gonna "move the needle?" He still plays every night. 

Precious is not gonna "turn the season around." Yet he still plays (even after he looked like he quit on his team in the first half last night)

There is zero excuse for Kolek (a winner with a great resume who happens to be the team's only pure PG) to remain shackled to the bench after Brunson was injured.

Again, as I've noted previously, the salary cap and apron restrictions that forced New York to settle for guys like Payne and Shamet will not magically disappear this offseason. 

Furthermore, they traded their 2025 first-round pick (and the rights to the Bucks 2025 first-round pick) to Brooklyn in the Bridges trade. They forfeited their 2025 second-round pick as a result of the league's investigation into the team's signing of Jalen Brunson in 2022. 

They have a few incoming second-rounders, but will the 58th pick in the 2025 draft yield a more NBA-ready and promising PG prospect than Kolek? 

Keep in mind that Kolek signed for $6.6 million, which is the most guaranteed money in NBA history paid to a second-round selection.

If Thibs is the coach next season, he will have to play players he doesn't wholly love or trust, just as every coach in the NBA does. Or he could just ride the starters until the wheels fall off completely.