In the big picture of the standings and the playoff picture and all that is mathematical, the Knicks can certainly absorb a loss Saturday night. 

Even if they fall to fourth in the East, it wouldn’t be a disaster because they’d avoid Boston in the second round. 

But let’s be real about where the Knicks stand entering the final three weeks of the regular season, with a game on deck against the bottom-dwelling Wizards: 

They are without identity, they are without confidence, they are without the ability to tout title contention and they cannot, under these circumstances, lose to the Wizards at home.