Following their third double-digit loss in a row, several Kings sat slumped in their chairs and wondered aloud what is wrong with them.

The New York Knicks, with their depleted backcourt and without injured All-Star forward Amar'e Stoudemire, had just spanked the Kings 114-92 Saturday night at Power Balance Pavilion.

Grumbling over coach Paul Westphal's new offense was heard, as were concerns over a lack of effort.

"Everybody keeps blaming the coach, about the plays, the plays not (being) good, but, hey, it be like that sometime," guard Tyreke Evans said. "You've just got to play."

The Kings, who played with so much energy six days ago in beating the Los Angeles Lakers to open their season, started slowly, looked listless at times and were booed more than once by the home fans for their lack of effort.

"We just look lost," Evans said. "We're just playing off our natural talent to get our points. It's terrible right now. We've just got to figure something out."

Players had no explanation how the youngest team in the NBA could play with so little energy at home.

The Kings shot terribly from the field overall (30 of 86, 34.9 percent), on three-pointers (6 of 22, 27.3 percent) and from the free-throw line (26 of 41, 63.4 percent).

"I don't know what that was," center DeMarcus Cousins said. "Running the offense coach tells us to run. Just doing what coach say. Got to do what your coach say."

One thing the Kings seemed to agree on was that they aren't playing as a team and don't respond well to adversity.

"Teams go on 10-0 runs, and we cave in," forward Chuck Hayes said.

That was the case Saturday. The game was over soon after it started when the Knicks closed the first quarter on a 30-10 run.

The Kings have fallen far behind in the first quarter of their last two games.

"I think that our players have got to say we've got to come out here and take care of business at the start of the game," Westphal said. "This is our home court. We're going to bring the energy and make this work together."

But togetherness on the court has been questioned by the Kings.

"It's like we shoot because we haven't put up a shot after three times up and down the court," Hayes said.

Said Evans: "I don't know where we are as a team. I don't think we're out there as a team. It seems like everybody is out there for themselves. It seems like guys want to score to me."

Evans was booed after missing a free throw (he's 13 of 27 this season) and has admittedly struggled adjusting to the new offense, which asks him to play off the ball more.

"I just try to get open as I can and create," Evans said. "It's no real set for me, nobody really in the offense. Just pass, cut. We lost; nobody really knows what to do. I think that's what's really hurting us right now."

Hayes said the mood would change with a win tonight against New Orleans. Cousins said running the offense correctly has been Westphal's message.

"That's what he's been emphasizing after these losses," Cousins said. "We haven't been running his offense, and we've got to do what he says."

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