ATLANTA — The Knicks arrived in Georgia on Election Day, where the race for governor dominated the news. And while the result of that vote wasn’t settled, Knicks coach David Fizdale weighed in on the mood.

Without mentioning President Donald Trump by name, he decried the tone that has surrounded the political landscape.

“Obviously there’s a lot of turmoil in our country over this stuff,” Fizdale said. “At some point I just hope we can get to a place where we can do this with the right temperament and set the right tone for our children. Because right now what’s been happening over the last two years is an embarrassment.”

It’s not the first time that he has spoken out about Trump. While coaching Memphis he told reporters that the confederate statues should come down and took issue with Trump’s comments after white supremacists clashed with protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“For [President Trump] to put those protesters that were there to stop them in the same boat as those awful, evil people that are there to just wreak havoc on that beautiful city,” he said. “For anyone who can sit there and defend his comments? You’re either stupid, honestly, you’re either just stupid or you’re sick.”

Hard to watch

Knicks rookie Kevin Knox did watch his college team struggle badly in the first test without him as Kentucky fell to Duke in their opener, 118-84, victimized by a trio of players that Knicks fans with an eye to the lottery will be watching. Duke freshmen R.J. Barrett (33 points), Zion Williamson (28 points) and Cam Reddish (22 points) were as advertised, nearly outscoring Kentucky by themselves.

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“They impressed me a lot,” Knox said of Duke. “I know most of them from high school playing against them sometimes. I’m cool with all of them. Those are my guys. They looked really good. They were really aggressive in their first college game. I was very definitely impressed by their performance.

“Kentucky had a shot before the game but i‘m pretty sure Duke is the favorite now to win it after watching that game. But this is the first game. They shot really well last night but I don’t know if they’ll shoot like that every game. They got a three-headed monster that’s going to produce every single night. That’s one thing about having more than one star. You don’t know who’s going to show up. Duke is probably the favorite now after last night’s game but I still got my Kentucky boys and one loss is nothing.”