By Mark Anthony Costanza

On Feb. 6, the New York Knicks suffered one of their most devastating losses of the season…and it wasn’t to the Milwaukee Bucks.

In the Knicks 103-89 loss Tuesday night, All-Star forward Kristaps Porzingis tore the ACL in his left knee. The injury occurred in the second quarter, when Porzingis landed heavily on his left leg after dunking over Giannis Antetokounmpo.

As the Knicks All-Star was aided off the court that night, any hopes of making the playoffs left with him. Porzingis, now scheduled to have surgery Feb. 13, will miss the rest of the season, leaving Knicks fans more deflated than a Tom Brady football (sorry, I had to do it).

With the All-Star forward out, what exactly are the Knicks losing?

First off, fans can kiss their points leader goodbye. This season, Porzingis was averaging 22.7 points per game. As the season progresses, I think we’re going to see the Knicks continually have low-scoring games. This can already be seen in the games since the injury happened. Two nights after scoring only 89 points against the Bucks, the team was only able to manage 88 points in their loss against the Toronto Raptors.

Sunday night against the Indiana Pacers, on the other hand, the Knicks were able to put up 113 in their 121-113 loss. However, I believe the main reason they were able to do so was because the Pacers have a sub-par defense, ranked 19th in defensive rating with 106.4.

Along with losing their points leader, the Knicks are also losing the team and league leader in blocks, averaging 2.4 per game. So not only are the Knicks going to be potentially scoring less, they are also most likely going to allow more points going forward, especially in the paint. This has become evident already with the team giving up 113 points versus the Raptors and 121 against the Pacers.

When it comes to basketball, and most other sports, scoring less and allowing more points is usually not a good formula for winning.

Is there any hope for the Knicks this season?

Maybe, but probably not. I don’t see how this team is going to recover and put on winning performances for the rest of the year. Even in the games with Porzingis, the Knicks have lost eight out of their last 10, and are currently trying to snap a six-game losing streak. They are fourth in the Atlantic Division with a mediocre 23-34 record.

Unless Tim Hardaway Jr., Enes Kanter and Michael Beasley start carrying the team, the only hope I can see is perhaps the players using this situation as a way of unifying the squad. They could try to display to the fans and others that this team can do well even without their best player, making a point that they do not need to rely on one star in order to collect wins.

It’s a reach, but you never know.