Fight just latest embarrassment

I F YOU can’t beat John Wall, try to beat him up.

That became the new Christmas Day credo for these pathetic Knicks of Phil Jackson. The Knicks have been losers all season. On Christmas, they became sore losers.

Quincy Acy is headed for a potential multiple-game suspension — not a return trip to Sacramento to face his former team Saturday— for his cheap Christmas mugging of Wall. The Wizards point guard embarrassed the Knicks all afternoon with his speed and brilliance before Acy embarrassed the franchise even more on national television.

You always figure it can’t get any worse for Jackson’s Knicks. It always does. The Knicks lost 102-91, fell to 5-26 and are behind the 76ers for last place in the NBA standings, though they have a better winning percentage than Philadelphia. ’Tis the season to be tanking. Afterward, Jackson, general manager Steve Mills and basketball operations man Jamie Matthews buzzed around outside the locker room area as if in crisis mode.

With 5:31 left and Knicks having cut the deficit to 11, Acy went after Wall with a hard foul in the face to stop another Washington fast break. Wall went down, got up and pushed Acy, who was already standing over him.

Acy attacked the Washington point guard with a right forearm to the back of Wall’s head before the Wizards players got between them. As he was restrained, Acy seethed for at least 30 seconds as Carmelo Anthony pulled Acy away to settle him down, but not before he picked up a flagrant 2 ejection. The big bearded one looked like a big baby.

Therewas no remorse from Acy afterward. Asked if he regretted the incident and wished he had walked away, Acy said, “Walking away? He got up and pushed me.’’

It was the only way the Knicks could try to stop Wall. There is toughness and there is terrible decision-making. Even in cheap minor league hockey fights, it is rare for the “enforcer’’ to go after a league superstar.

Amar’e Stoudemire called it “an accumulation of frustration.’’ Hours earlier, in the first All-Star balloting results, Wall was the top vote-getter among guards and said he considered himself “the best’’ point guard in the game. The NBA is also the best at punishing thuggery.

“Itwas an aggressive exchange,’’ Knicks coach Derek Fisher said. “Quincy didn’t throw a punch, just went at him aggressively. I don’t think that’s a situation where we need to try to explain to Quincy he shouldn’t do that again. If anything, we want to do as a team and become a group where we don’t necessarily put ourselves in that situation at all, play at a high-enough level that all those things are beneath us.’’

Nothing is beneath the Knicks nowadays. Replays showed several Knicks stayed away from the fracas — except Anthony. That likely was a function of not wanting to escalate it further. Anthony got in when things had cooled.

“My responsibility is to take care of [Acy] and the right thing to do is to take him away from everybody and walk on the sideline,’’ Anthony said.

Coaches attempted to hold the Knicks players on the bench from going onto the court. But to knock the Knicks for not aiding Acy misses the point. Instead, they need to playmore as a cohesive unit and they did nothing of the sort in the opening minutes of Thursday’s game. They played an atrocious first quarter and couldn’t recover as the Wizards scored on their first four possessions with points from four different players.

The Wizards (20-8) are establishing a mighty core group as the Knicks continue this mess, knowing several guys with expiring contracts will be gone next season.

“There’s some advantage to having a group of guys just work together long enough to care enough about each other,’’ Fisher said before the game. “The other guy’s success means as much to him as his own success does. That only comes with time. You can’t just put guys together and expect them to think that way.’’

Earlier, Jackson tweeted a Merry Christmas to the fans, adding he expects Santa Claus to deliver better results after Dec. 31. “Please be assured your hopes and wishes are getting through to Santa,’’ Jackson wrote. “He will bring a better 2015 than 14. The effort and skill of our team will grow as the players learn how to play with and for each other.’’

Santa may finally have met his match.