Pelicans 99, Knicks 91: "Did we hire Thibs yet?"

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY SportsGame happened.

According to social and regular media, Monday night's loss to the New Orleans Pelicans was particularly embarrassing, even for this Knicks club. I don't get it. Sure, the Pelicans were missing most of their starters, and sure, even Alonzo Gee ended up missing the second half, and sure, Toney Douglas was prominently involved (16 points!), but the Pels had a quality point guard in Jrue Holiday, enough athletes to play uptempo, and a coach smart enough to implement an uptempo game plan. That's more than enough to beat the Kurt Rambis Knicks.

Rambis could clearly see that his opponent wanted to push pace -- even a six-year-old could see that -- and…