SALT LAKE CITY — It was ‘80s Night’ at the Delta Center and the Knicks brought it back to the forgettable days of Pat Cummings and Louis Orr.
In other words, they weren’t very good.
As Journey and Bruce Springsteen blasted during timeouts, the Knicks were pounded at the start of the fourth quarter in a 117-113 defeat to the Jazz, wasting another strong performance from Julius Randle and missing two open shots that could’ve tied the game in the final seconds.
The killer stretch spanned the third and fourth quarters — with Jalen Brunson and Randle mostly on the bench — when the Jazz scored 16 straight points to take a 15-point advantage.
It started with a boneheaded foul from center Isaiah Hartenstein, who ran into Utah’s Lauri Markkanen as the forward took a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
From there, the Knicks went ice cold — going about 4 ½ minutes without a point — and the home team pounced.
The Knicks (13-10) then came back to cut the deficit to three, but Josh Hart and Brunson misfired on consecutive treys in the same possession with under 30 seconds remaining.
The Jazz (8-16), a rebuilding team after trading Donovan Mitchell two summers ago, have struggled this season and entered Wednesday on a three-game losing streak.
But they returned All-Star Markkanen after a three-week absence because of a hamstring strain, and the Finnish forward needed just 24 minutes to drop 23 points.
Tom Thibodeau understood it wouldn’t be easy, and his team responded with a dud.
Almost every Knick struggled other than Randle, who scored 32 points on 14 of 23 shooting.
None was worse than RJ Barrett.
The 23-year-old misfired on 13 of his 16 shot attempts, including 0-for-7 from beyond the arc.
He was benched for most of the fourth quarter.
“When you go on the road, obviously you have to be at your best. Your margin for error is tight,” Thibodeau said. “You don’t have your crowd behind you for energy. How you prepare is the exact same way. You don’t want to change, put your focus into getting ready to play and then when the ball goes up we have to go up and execute.”
The night kicked off a five-game road trip and was arguably the easiest of the slate.
The Knicks next travel to Phoenix to face the Suns’ Big 3, then Los Angeles for games against LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard, then back to the East Coast for a matchup at Barclays Center.
Wednesday was the first game for the Knicks this season in high altitude, with the thinness in Salt Lake City’s air only rivaled in the NBA by Denver.
Until last season — when some would argue Thibodeau’s job was saved with back-to-back November victories in Utah and Denver — the Knicks hadn’t won in Utah since the 2017-18 campaign.
Brunson, who played in the Western Conference for four seasons, said there’s no big secret to managing the altitude. He just burns out his lungs early.
“Get your first wind fast. That’s been my thought process with it. Get your first wind fast, just go from there,” Brunson said. “It’s more mental than anything for me. I just try to get over that hump.”
But what does first wind mean?
“Basically you want to exert your energy to where you’re kind of tired and then all of a sudden you’re fine,” Brunson said. “Just make sure you get over that first hump of just playing through a little shortness of breath or whatever. Basically just get through it.”
Doesn’t sound scientific and Brunson struggled Wednesday while missing 12 of his 18 shots, including the potential tying trey with 20 seconds left.
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