Outmanned

The Knicks are running out of healthy bodies.

Good morning. If you have two functioning legs and are capable of initiating an offense, please call Leon Rose at your earliest convenience.

Game 72: Clippers 126, Knicks 113

• For the second straight game, New York got off to a gangbusters start on offense, making eight of their first nine from the field and dishing a dozen first quarter assists.

• The sleepy Clips shook off their rust and got going in the second quarter, but New York maintained a 2-point halftime lead

• The game turned late in the 3rd with a James Harden-infused 16-3 LA run.

• Kawhi Leonard took the baton in the fourth, helping to build the advantage up to 19, and a brief Knicks rally to cut it to single digits was too little, too late.

• The Clips finished the game shooting 53.3 percent from deep, and 61.9 percent after the first quarter. The Knicks, meanwhile, shot 34.5 percent from long range after starting the game 3-for-5.

• After nearly leading the league in opponents’ turnover rate over their previous 10 games, New York’s defense forced just five giveaways.

Tough game to process.

Instinctually, when an alleged contending team allows a 27-point turnaround that results in a 13-point loss on their home court, your gut reaction as a basketball fan is to be mad. When the opponent in question pulls off that comeback thanks in part to a barrage of 3-pointers, several of which came on open looks, it doesn’t make the defeat go down any smoother.

For those reasons alone, even if the Knicks were on the hunt for moral victories without their captain, this loss doesn’t qualify.

But their are tough losses and their are bad losses, and Wednesday’s misstep to a very dangerous Clippers team would have fallen into the former category even if New York wasn’t on the second night of a back to back.

Instincts aside, that feels like the most reasonable take given the onslaught of injuries at a fairly important position.