CLEVELAND — The Knicks were loose Monday morning as they prepared for their game agains the Cavaliers hours later. The front office executives were all here, scattered around the seats just off the court and when the work was done players trash talked their way through one-on-one competitions and Mario Hezonja was showing off his soccer skills, kicking a ball into the upper deck of Quicken Loans Arena.
If you didn’t know better you might not know that the Knicks were facing a humbling bit of history — facing the Cavs in a battle to see who would be the worst team in the NBA and also the possibility of a 17-game losing streak, which would be the worst single-season stretch in franchise history.