Why is Derek Fisher so defiant about Knicksâ€™ late-game woes?

Derek Fisher has heard the criticism about the Knicks, his coaching style and whether he's the man to lead the franchise back to being an elite team anytime soon. But the rookie head coach vowed on Sunday night to get "the last laugh" if his players stick with him. That could prove hard to do.

The Knicks extended the worst start in franchise history with a 103-99 loss to the Blazers at the Garden to drop to 4-18 on the season. With LeBron James sitting courtside before facing the Nets Monday night at Barclays Center, the Knicks failed once again to execute with enough consistency and success down the stretch to earn a win.

That's four straight losses of five points or less amid an eight-game losing streak that is testing the Knicks' resolve. So far the Knicks say they still believe in Fisher, the triangle offense and each other. But how many more losses can this solidarity withstand?

"Being a head coach is a tough job," Amar'e Stoudemire said. "But he's keeping us focused. He's giving us hope this thing will turn around. Those are the intangibles we need."

The Knicks are vowing to keep their collective chins up and support Fisher, but the late-game fades have become a maddening trend sure to raise questions about Fisher and his late-game coaching. The Knicks have lost seven straight games when the margin is five points or less.

Sunday night, they rallied from an 11-point deficit to take a 97-95 lead late in the fourth quarter. But they failed to score in the final 1:27. Carmelo Anthony and Pablo Prigioni missed jump shots and the Blazers sealed the game when Robin Lopez grabbed an offensive rebound with 8.8 seconds remaining.

Same old Knicks.

"I don't want to keep making those same excuses trying to figure out reasons why we're not pulling out the game," said Anthony, who scored 23 points. "We're just not doing it at this point."

The Knicks should have enough talent and enough experience to win some of these games, especially at home. They're not a team made up of rookies. Yet, they continually fall short in the clutch.

"You have to put pressure on yourself to try and make sure you come through with a big play," Iman Shumpert said.

Fisher continues to say it's a matter of building trust in the triangle and each other through repetition — "trust that the things we work on every day, the tools and skills they do have within our system and what we're trying to do will work in good times and bad times," he said.

Yet, he also suggested the Knicks "still have some doubt" about the new system they're trying to learn, a notion with which his players disagreed.

"I think everybody is giving the effort and trusting as much as they can," J.R. Smith said. "It's just that sometimes over the course of the game you try to ad lib a little bit, try to make some stuff up as you go. I don't think it's people fighting the system. It's people trying to make plays."

Coaches like to say they never read the newspapers or listen to the radio, especially during difficult times like this. But Fisher hasn't been able to escape the negative chatter sure to grow about his team, its late-game failures and the slow development of the triangle offense.

"When things aren't going well, it's easy for people to kick at you while you're down a little bit," Fisher said in a somewhat defiant tone. "If you stay with it long enough you'll get the last laugh."