Steph Curry sent the Knicks home on their struggle bus, bloodied and beaten again.
The 3-point ace helped dismantle Jalen Brunson’s squad in Thursday’s 110-99 Warriors victory at MSG, leaving the Knicks with seven losses in nine games and their fanbase longing for the injured frontcourt.
Curry put on a show early and finished with 31 points and 11 rebounds, watching the Knicks melt down the stretch.
The Knicks (35-25), who are suddenly in danger of dropping into a play-in spot, returned Brunson from neck spasms, but his presence wasn’t enough to resuscitate the flatlined offense.
Trailing for all but the opening 17 seconds of the game, the Knicks shot just 36.8 percent — getting duds from newcomers Bojan Bogdanovic (0-for-7 shooting) and Alec Burks (2-for-6).
The ’Nova trio of Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo combined to shoot 21-for-63.
“I’m not sure what you all expect or what you all think,” said Hart, who played all but one minute and shot 4-for-17. “We are playing as best as we can with the bodies that we have. We have guys like [OG Anunoby], [Julius Randle], [Mitchell Robinson], who’ve been out for a long time. … We’re playing our asses off. It’s not like we’re just sitting there and crying about injuries and laying down.”
The Knicks are indeed still playing hard — they won the rebounding battle Thursday, 56-53 — but the talent gap is widening.
They still somehow cut the deficit to seven with about four minutes left before Curry buried the Knicks with a pair of 3-pointers.
“We played bad. That’s it,” Hart said. “We played bad. Some shots that we normally make we were just short on.”
Tom Thibodeau’s squad never really recovered from a rough start.
With Randle and Anunoby still without a set return date (at least Anunoby was cleared Thursday for on-court work), the Knicks fell in a 14-0 ditch Thursday in just four minutes.
Curry commandeered the Garden before many fans got to their seats.
“They hit us hard,” Thibodeau said. “So they got out in transition, got easy buckets, and we had to fight out a big hole.”
Curry finished with 11 points and seven boards in the opening quarter, tying a career high for rebounds in any quarter.
His 10 rebounds at halftime also tied the most of his long career.
The Warriors never let their lead get closer than four.
“They brought it right from the beginning,” Brunson said. “And then pretty much playing catch up. It made things difficult all night, so you gotta give them a lot of credit. That’s a well-coached team over there. They’ve been playing well over the past, like, 15 games or whatever it is. Yeah, they have weapons, and you can clearly tell that they’ve been playing together for a long time, so you gotta give them a lot of credit.”
There were also some dirty tactics from the usual suspects — Draymond Green and Chris Paul.
DiVincenzo, who missed his first eight 3-pointers, finished the second quarter with a bloody nose after getting clubbed in the face by the swinging fist of Green, who was going for a rebound but followed through a little harder than necessary.
No foul was called. Green and DiVincenzo were teammates with the Warriors last season, which went haywire after Green knocked out Jordan Poole during practice.
At the end of the third quarter, Paul stood his ground and lowered his shoulder into the face of Brunson, who fell to the court holding his grill.
Again, no call.
The Warriors (31-27) are surging after a poor start to the campaign, fighting Father Time with their core in the mid-30s (Curry, Klay Thompson, Green, Paul) and riding improvement from youngsters Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody.
Kuminga, an NYC product, finished with 25 points in 30 minutes.
The Warriors have won 13 of 16 but face an uphill battle to avoid the play-in tournament in a stacked West.
The Knicks are trending in the other direction. Burned by injuries, they’re still fourth in the East but just one game out of the seventh spot, which isn’t guaranteed a playoff spot.
It’s getting dicey.
