Knicks facing their toughest test: Is there time to grab control of their season again?

NEW YORK – Josh Hart didn’t mince words about how the Knicks got off to a terrible start Thursday night against the Golden State Warriors and ultimately found themselves facing another defeat.

“We played bad,” Hart said.

That summed it up.

Hart and the Knicks ultimately lost 110-99, shooting 36.8 percent for the night and going just 12-of-39 from beyond the arc.

It was the Knicks’ second-consecutive loss and seventh in their last nine games, a stretch that came on the heels of a nine-game winning streak that had the city dreaming of what the spring could look like with this team.

But now these Knicks are depleted, victimized by injuries to some of their biggest weapons. Suddenly nothing’s coming quite so easily.

Now the big question is whether the Knicks can snap out of this before they find themselves in more perilous playoff positioning.

They still own the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, but they’re also just one game ahead of the seventh-seeded Orlando Magic.

Bad start vs. Golden State Warriors proved costly

This one felt over from the early going after the Knicks missed their first nine shot attempts until Donte DiVencenzo snapped the drought with a layup at the 6:34 mark. By that point the Knicks were already in a 14-point hole.

But the Knicks kept clawing and a three-pointer from the right corner by Jalen Brunson with just less than three minutes to go in the third quarter brought the Knicks to within six, bringing the Garden crowd to its feet.

Then the Warriors began building their lead back up again, a three from Klay Thompson and a jumper from Chris Paul giving Golden State a 15-point lead with 10:34 to go.

The Knicks again clawed back and cut it to single digits, but they couldn’t complete the comeback with Golden State again pushing its lead back to double digits in the closing minutes on the way to handing the Knicks a loss.

"They hit us hard," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "They got out in transition, got easy buckets, and we had to fight out a big hole, which we ended up doing, but the first five or six minutes obviously weren't our best, but after that, I thought we did a pretty good job."

Knicks' road ahead: Cleveland, No. 2 seed in the East

It doesn’t get much easier anytime soon, either. The Knicks play at Cleveland, which owns the No. 2 seed in the East on Sunday, before four-straight home games against the Hawks, Magic and Sixers (they play Philadelphia in consecutive games) before a west coast road trip.

“We’re on to Cleveland, for sure,” said Brunson, who finished with 27 points on 11-of-25 shooting against the Warriors. We clearly need to be better. “We can definitely learn from our past. We can be upset for the rest of today, until we fall asleep. But tomorrow morning, we’ve got to be focused on the next one. Keep our spirits up, keep our confidence up. We all need to work hard individually to be confident. Just come in the next day ready to go, keep trusting each other and keep chipping away. You can’t hit home runs all the time, just keep hitting singles.”

The Knicks did get some good news Thursday when OG Anunoby, who’s been out after having a bone fragment removed from his elbow, was cleared for on-court work. Still not cleared for contact, Anunoby still has some hurdles to overcome before returning to game action.

“The good thing was him getting cleared today,” Thibodeau said. “Now you go into the next phase. He’ll be checked by our medical people daily and then we go from there. This next step is the important one. Once the contact is added, then that’s when he’ll be ready to go.”

That can’t come soon enough for these depleted Knicks, who are also without Julius Randle (shoulder) and Mitchell Robinson (ankle) for an indefinite amount of time.

The hope is they all come back before the end of the regular season.

The hope is that once the playoffs begin, the Knicks will be whole and a dangerous threat to make a run.

There’s uncertainty until then.

Just where will the Knicks be once they do become whole again?

“We’re confident,” said Isaiah Hartenstein, who’s been bothered lately by a sore Achilles. “We had a little stretch even after that when we were playing good. Then after that we had more injuries and then a whole bunch of guys out. And certain games where it was close at the end. Then this last stretch has been a little tougher. But again, we have enough guys here. We’re confident in that until everyone comes back.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY Knicks face tough task with Cavaliers, Hawks, Magic and Sixers next