Amar'e: Knicks skid 'mind-boggling'

NEW YORK -- Amar'e Stoudemire has the same reaction as many other New York Knicks fans when he looks at his team's record.

"It's beyond my imagination at this point," he said Sunday before a 95-82 loss to the Milwaukee Bucksthat extended their losing streak to 11 games. "I never thought I'd see this. ... This is definitely kind of mind-boggling."

The Knicks (5-31) dropped their 21st of 22 and have the most losses in the NBA.

Carmelo Anthony missed his second straight game due to knee soreness. There was no clear timetable for his return.

"It's a tragic thing," said centerSamuel Dalembertof the mounting losses. Though healthy enough to return, Dalembert did not play after missing three straight games with an ankle injury.

The Knicks are now one loss shy of tying the franchise mark of 12 straight defeats, last done in 1984-85. New York has already set the record for consecutive home losses. It was the team's 10th straight loss at home.

Of course, this wasn't how Stoudemire -- who missed his fourth straight game due to knee soreness -- envisioned what could be his final season in New York playing out.

When Stoudemire signed a five-year, $100 million contract with the Knicks in the summer of 2010, he declared the team would return to relevance. He mostly delivered on that promise, helping New York reach the playoffs for three straight seasons.

But things have fallen apart this season. Now, in the last year of Stoudemire's contract, it seems as if the only thing the team is competing for is a lottery position.

"When I first signed with New York, that wasn't the game plan," Stoudemire said. "... But the past is not here. And neither is the future, so we've got to deal with the now, and I think we've just got to continue to try to get better as a team and as players, try to keep improving."

After the loss, coach Derek Fisher discussed the toll that all of the defeats have taken on the locker room.

"Losing isn't enjoyable, in any way, shape or form," Fisher said. "So from an emotional standpoint, you have to just continue to manage what you can control and continue to keep your mind focused on positive things. I'm trying to make sure that I'm being the right type of leader for these guys. ... We're going through a lot right now as a group, so it's my job to hold it down for them as they struggle. So if I have to take the brunt of whatever it is, then I'll take it. That's my job."

The light at the end of the tunnel for the Knicks is that they have their first-round draft pick in June's draft. They are on track to get one of the top picks. The Knicks also expect to have significant cap space this summer and hope to sign a top free agent to begin to reshape the roster.

"It will turn for us," Fisher said. "It just doesn't look like it right now."

Anthony has been dealing with soreness in his left knee since the second game of the season.

Fisher said he expects Anthony to travel with the team to Memphis and Washington on its upcoming road trip, but it is unclear if he will suit up for either game.

Fisher suggested that Anthony would sit out for the Knicks' upcoming stretch of five games in seven days, but on Sunday he wasn't ready to completely rule him out of those games.

"We're kind of looking at this next week or so being a heavy stretch, and probably will be best for him not to go," Fisher said. "I just think from day to day it's hard for a player I'm just going to sit for 'X' amount of time. I think he could over the next couple days decide he's feeling better and wants to be out there with his teammates, I think he should be open to do so."

Stoudemire will not travel with the Knicks on their upcoming road trip to Milwaukee or Washington.

"It's a slow process at this point," Stoudemire said. "Once you overuse [the knee] a little bit then it takes time for everything to calm down and get back to a normal feeling."

Anthony has tried to play through pain for much of the season, sitting for four games due to knee soreness. Fisher last week acknowledged the possibility of shutting Anthony down for an extended period, but noted the team is not ready to make that decision yet.

"From the conversations I've been a part of, I think everybody is smart enough to realize, calendar-wise, timing-wise, that there may come a point that that's the decision that needs to be made," Fisher said Friday. "But [we realize] that we can't force Carmelo to that point just yet."

Anthony has acknowledged that surgery is one option available to him to repair the injury, but he called that option a "last resort" last month.