Over the next hour, as the Knicks began the slow, painful post-mortem of Sundayâs 120-89 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Coach Mike Woodson questioned his teamâs pride. Carmelo Anthony used the word âembarrassing.â Metta World Peace hinted at conflicts that needed resolution.  âItâs things that even if anybody wanted to say something, weâd never say to you guys,â World Peace said. âWe would never tell the public.â  It was a glum scene at Madison Square Garden as the Knicks (2-4) plunged to new depths amid their well-established, early-season struggles: no defense, no offense, no rebounding, no chance. Certainly not against the Spurs (6-1), long one of the leagueâs most successful and stable franchises.  The Spurs do not squander big leads. They do not make foolish mistakes. They do not lose focus, not even during sleepy matinees in November. So the contrast between the two franchises was clear from the start, as the Spurs, in building a 37-point lead, took the liberty of humiliating the Knicks on their home court.  âWe didnât compete tonight, and thatâs just unacceptable,â Woodson said.  At this time last year, the Knicks were undefeated and racing their way to a 54-win season. The Garden was abuzz. The games were parties.  Those days are gone, as are several veterans â including Jason Kidd â whose collective value now seems apparent. The Knicks lacked cohesion even before Tyson Chandler broke his right leg last week, and their situation grew so bleak that they staged a players-only meeting before Fridayâs win over the Charlotte Bobcats.  The Spurs are not the Bobcats, however, and the Knicks needed more than a meeting to match San Antonioâs size and experience.  âI understood what we were up against tonight,â said World Peace, who finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds off the bench. âThey were throwing some nice little wrinkles at these young fellas that they never saw before. Itâs just about getting better.â  The Spurs shot 53.9 percent and outrebounded the Knicks, 51-33, as Danny Green scored 24 points and sank 6 of 9 attempts from 3-point range. Tim Duncan collected 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Tony Parker filleted the Knicksâ defense for 17 points and 6 assists.  Anthony led the Knicks with 16 points and 8 rebounds but often found himself double-teamed by defenders whenever he touched the ball. That second defender was sometimes Duncan, who used his pterodactyl-like wingspan to obstruct Anthonyâs vision and limit him to 10 field-goal attempts.  âThe Spurs did everything right,â Anthony said. âThey did everything they wanted to do out there on the court.â  The Knicks, on the other hand, played something that only vaguely resembled professional basketball. The damage began to accumulate in the gameâs opening minutes. There was the Spursâ Marco Belinelli, buzzing past Raymond Felton along the 3-point arc and encountering zero defensive help en route to a layup and a 10-0 lead.  Early in the third quarter, the Knicksâ Iman Shumpert pulled away for a fast-break layup that bounced off the rim before falling away. At the other end, Green drained another 3-pointer. The lead was back to 22, and Woodson adopted a familiar pose: arms crossed, his face contorted in a grimace.  Woodson said he was disappointed that his players had let their miscues on offense dictate how they played defense, which meant not playing much defense at all.  âThatâs a bad combination when you do that,â Woodson said.  J. R. Smith, the N.B.A.âs reigning sixth man of the year, made his first appearance of the season after serving a five-game suspension for violating the leagueâs drug policy. A warm greeting from the crowd devolved into jeers as Smith went 1 of 9 from the field with four turnovers.  The Knicks have lacked continuity this season. No chemistry. Little flow. Woodson acknowledged the challenge of reintroducing Smith to the lineup while attempting to make up for the loss of Chandler. Against the Spurs, it was an impossible task.  âWe will figure it out,â said Anthony, who used some version of that phrase eight times in a five-minute session with the news media. âI have to remain very confident, very positive in this locker room, and hopefully my teammates feed off of that.â  He added: âIf Iâm in here being negative, then theyâre going to be in here being negative and moping around, and the morale is down. We canât have that, not right now.â  San Antonio seems to hold itself to a different standard. Before the game, Coach Gregg Popovich graded his teamâs early-season performance: âWeâre playing C-plus, B-minus basketball right now.â He rattled off the ways the Spurs could improve: transition defense, ball movement, weakside help, rebounding.  How, then, to explain his teamâs success?  âGood fortune,â Popovich said. âCorporate knowledge. Theyâre older than dirt; they know what theyâre doing.â  They left the Garden after showing just how much the Knicks still had to learn.
J. R. Smith returned to the lineup, but the Knicks failed in every aspect in a humiliating loss to San Antonio at the Garden on Sunday.