With 9:04 remaining in the fourth quarter of a consequential matchup against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday, the Madison Square Garden crowd–peppered with Knicks alumni from years past and present–began clamoring for their home team to grab a hold of the rope. “Let’s go, Knicks,” fans chante d in an attempt to will their team to a desperate win and stop the bleeding from a skid that’s extended from the NBA Cup. The Knicks were down one at that point, sloppily holding their own in a game Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart each missed due to right ankle ailments. They found themselves down double digits with just over three minutes left in regulation and went on to lose, 106-99, in front of franchise royalty for their eighth loss in their last 10 games. The Knicks had a chance to cut Phoenix’s lead down to just four with under a minute left in regulation, but Karl-Anthony Towns air-balled a wide-open three at the top of the key. The same fans that clamored for the Knicks minutes earlier began booing their All-Star center on their own home court. And the notable Knicks alumni from Carmelo Anthony to Steve Novak saw the current state of a championship contender in disarray. The Knicks have now fallen to the Eastern Conference’s No. 3 seed. They are 2-8 since New Year’s Eve and fell to 3-6 in the last nine games Hart has missed due to injury. “I like that [our alumni] are in the building. It’s pretty neat to have them here,” head coach Mike Brown said ahead of tipoff. “But as a coach you hope that we don’t need any extra motivation at all. You hope that we come out and we can do things we need to do to get a win.” The Knicks did some of those things. With Brunson and Hart out of the rotation, Brown started Miles McBride and rookie Mohamed Diawara alongside Towns, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby. McBride made five threes on 11 attempts for 23 points, and OG Anunoby finished with 21 points on 6-of-17 shooting from the field. Towns, who picked up five fouls for the third straight game, shot 7-of-16 from the field and finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds, unable to dominate a game Brunson sat due to injury. And he missed the most important shot of the night–a shot that clearly held the weight of a franchise in flux. Meanwhile, the Knicks lost a second game this season to a Suns team built on physicality and tough play. Devin Booker led the way with 27 points in his first game back from an ankle injury, but the Suns won with their defense, plus a bench that got 29 combined points from Grayson Allen and Jordan Goodwin. The shorthanded Knicks mustered just 14 points from their second unit as their struggles continue after going 3-1 in their four-game West Coast road trip. “I thought we played well in Portland, everybody was healthy. I thought we did a really good job on both sides of the ball throughout most of the game. Obviously we got to Sacramento and we didn’t play well. It’s unfortunate that Jalen got hurt early in the game,” Brown said ahead of tipoff. “I don’t know if that took some mojo out of us or what, but we could have been better on both sides of the ball. And I thought in Golden State the guys responded well. We just didn’t — it’s tough, we didn’t have enough to close down the stretch. The game could have gone either way. “I thought our overall play was pretty good with the exception of a few things, and hopefully we can continue to build on it.” Next up, the Knicks host the Dallas Mavericks in a 5 p.m. tipoff on Monday. The Mavericks are among the worst teams in the NBA with Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving out due to injury. If the Knicks can’t get back on track against Dallas, they’ll have serious questions to answer ahead of the Feb. 5 NBA Trade Deadline. ...read more read less