While the triangle offense has been the alpha and omega of the Knicks’ rebuilding issues during Phil Jackson’s tenure as team president, the team’s concerns now extend beyond the geometric shapes it employs when it has the ball.

The Knicks are one of the better teams in the N.B.A. this season when it comes to putting points on the scoreboard. Their problem has been a consistently shoddy defense.

The Knicks are 2-4 in large part because they have yet to hold an opponent to fewer than 102 points in a game. They had the worst defensive rating in the league going into Tuesday night’s games, and the situation is dire enough that players steeped in clichés cannot find a positive to harp on.

“We’re last in defense,” Joakim Noah said. “So there’s not one thing defensively we’re doing well.”

Not surprisingly, on Tuesday the Knicks began efforts to turn matters around. On the court, the team held a lengthy, defense-centric practice that began at 11 a.m. and ended close to 2 p.m. At the same time, Coach Jeff Hornacek said that Kurt Rambis, an assistant coach, would become the team’s de facto defensive coordinator.