The Knicks were a top-five offense with Jalen Brunson in the rotation.
With their All-Star captain sidelined due to a right ankle sprain, buckets have come fewer and further between.
After the San Antonio Spurs ran the Knicks off the Frost Bank Center floors, leading by as many as 28 points in a 120-105 victory on Wednesday night, New York fell to eighth-worst in offensive rating in through the six games Brunson had missed since leaving in overtime of a March 6 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Knicks offense stagnated once again in their seventh game without the captain, the second leg of a road back-to-back on Thursday, failing to reach just barely reaching the century mark in a 115-98 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
The Knicks have now lost six of their last nine games — including their first two of the season against teams ranked in the bottom-four of either the Eastern or Western Conference standings. Mitchell Robinson sitting the second game of a back-to-back explains the defense allowing the Hornets to score 50 points in the paint.
But the inability to generate quality offense shows itself when the Knicks dig themselves a hole and struggle to shoot themselves out of it.
Josh Hart touched on his team’s offensive struggles after Wednesday’s loss in San Antonio.
“I think it’s a combination of [shots] not falling, but also we have to make it easier for each other,” said Hart. “We have to play-make for each other and put each other in good positions to be successful.
“We knew that was gonna be the struggle without JB,” Hart told reporters in San Antonio. “But we’ve gotta make the game easier for each other.”
Like he did against the Spurs, Karl-Anthony Towns got hot early and finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds on 10-of-21 shooting from the field. OG Anunoby also scored a team-high 25 points, but the Knicks got just seven points from their second unit — five from Cameron Payne and two from Precious Achiuwa — before third-stringers Anton Watson and MarJon Beauchamp recorded field goals in garbage time.
Meanwhile the Hornets had five players who scored in double figures, led by 25 points and 8 assists from LaMelo Ball, plus double-doubles each from Miles Bridges (15 points, 10 rebounds, four assists) and Mark Williams (19 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks).
For the second night in a row, the Knicks were disproportionately out-rebounded, this time a 52-38 margin swinging in favor of the Hornets after the Spurs, who played 6-foot-8 Jeremy Sochan as starting center, won on the glass, 52-44.
“That was a big concern. Big. Particularly because they started the game small,” Thibodeau said after the Spurs loss. “And I thought our reaction to the ball wasn’t great, and they’re athletic and quick, so we’ve gotta make sure we put a body on it, but it’s — we were behind all night. It’s better to initiate contact rather than react to it.”
The Knicks entered Thursday’s matchup scoring just 111.7 points per 100 possessions since Brunson’s injury, according to data from the NBA’s statistics page. That mark was down 6.2 points per 100 possessions through the first 62 games of the season.
It dropped again after the Knicks shot just 40 percent from the field and 25.6 percent (10-of-39) from downtown in Charlotte.
And with Brunson out until likely early April, the Knicks need to dig deep to find their offense. New York has a four-game cushion over the fourth-seeded Indiana Pacers and there are five games separating seeds 5 (Milwaukee) and 6 (Detroit Pistons) from the Knicks in the standings.
Next up, the Knicks host another team in the bottom-four on Saturday: the Washington Wizards, who own the worst record in the NBA.