The Spurs come to the Garden on Saturday in name only.

The perennial contenders arrive to face the Knicks on an eight-game losing streak, the franchise’s longest in 22 years, just 5-11 overall and two-and-a-half games ahead of the Warriors for the worst record in the Western Conference. Being spurned by Marcus Morris, who verbally agreed to a two-year, $20 million deal with San Antonio before changing his mind and accepting the Knicks’ one-year, $15 million offer, hasn’t helped.

“It’s crazy,” Knicks guard Dennis Smith Jr. said of the Spurs’ struggles following practice Friday. “Thinking about it, hearing it, it’s actually hard to believe.”

Knicks coach David Fizdale described the Spurs as a “wounded animal,” hurting yet still dangerous. After starting the season with four wins in five games, including an opening night victory over the Knicks in San Antonio, the Spurs have lost 10 of 11. Seven of those losses, however, have come by single digits.

“They’re still the Spurs to us,” Fizdale said. “I don’t think we have that luxury to look at any team any other way but with respect.”

Fizdale remembers the Spurs reeling off nine straight wins last March after struggling for a stretch of games. He’s not ready to assume their record is an indication of their capabilities as a team.

“I just know cultures. Their culture will not panic,” he said. “Their culture is just going to dig in, keep working at it and keep getting better. At some point, you’ll see them get rolling again.”

Smith has begun to find consistency, at least on the offensive end, backing up Frank Ntilikina at point guard. He’s averaging nine points over his past four games, while committing just 1.5 turnovers per game and shooting 46 percent from the field.

“I’m getting there,” said Smith, who was away from the team for two weeks mourning the death of his stepmother. “I feel good when I’m playing. My wind feels good.”

Fizdale said he thinks his conditioning can still improve, to where he can give all-out effort at both ends of the floor for every second he’s on the court.

Smith, along with Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Damyean Dotson, is part of a young second unit that has begun to take shape.

“Now I just got to get them to find some chemistry and some connection,” Fizdale said. “They’ve shown flashes of being really good and then they have moments where they take a step back, but that’s just them playing enough [together] to figure it out.”