NEW YORK -- Coming into the season, many wondered how the New York Knicks would fit together on offense. Would Derrick Rose adapt to the triangle? Was Kristaps Porzingis going to take a step forward? How would Rose and Carmelo Anthony play together?

After six games, however, it’s clear that everyone was worried about the wrong side of the ball. The Knicks’ biggest issues right now are on defense.

The latest example came on Sunday afternoon, when the club allowed 65 points to Utah in the second half of a 114-109 loss. The Knicks walked off the court with the worst defense, statistically, in the NBA.

The Knicks struggled, in particular, to defend the pick-and-roll against the Jazz. Utah's George Hill created several open looks for his teammates with the play, which is part of the reason the Jazz made 24 of their 38 shots after halftime.

“We gave this game away,” Anthony said after New York fell to 2-4.

Rose, who had another strong floor game (18 points, 8 assists), believes that defense will be a barometer for the Knicks all season.

“Our defense is everything with this team, nothing else,” he said. “Offensively we’re going to be fine, we’re going to find spots. We’re going to find spots to really play our game. It’s defensively, everybody playing on a string, everybody communicating, and everybody being on the same page [that is important].”

Many players – plus coach Jeff Hornacek – said the Knicks didn’t communicate well while defending the pick-and-roll.

That’s been an issue for this club for much of the early season. Entering play Sunday, they ranked 25th in points per play scored by opposing ball handlers on pick-and-roll plays, per NBA.com’s tracking stats. Also, Knicks opponents scored points 46 percent of the time they ran a play that ended with a shot from a pick-and-roll ball handler, per NBA.com. That's the third-highest rate in the NBA.

On Sunday, Hornacek said his players wanted to switch on pick-and-rolls but hinted that all five players weren’t on the same page.

“One guy thought they were switching, the other guy didn’t. Guys said they were yelling it out, other guys were saying they didn’t hear it,” he said.

Gordon Hayward went for 28 points Sunday against the Knicks. Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

This seems to be an outcome of the club not playing together much in the preseason, when Rose missed two weeks due to a civil trial and Joakim Noah missed 10 days with a hamstring injury. Courtney Lee suggested last week that the Knicks should practice defending the pick-and-roll rather than the triangle offense, which makes sense.

All in all, it sounds as if the Knicks are confident that they'll figure out how to defend the pick-and-roll effectively in due time. If not, they'll have trouble stopping a play that's used frequently in today's NBA.

“That’s the way that the game of basketball is being played these days, regardless of [whether] we want to admit to it or not," Anthony said. “That's the game of basketball. Everybody runs it. If you can figure out a way to stop that, then I think you can be successful in this league.”

Hornacek says Knicks need bench production: The Knicks led by one entering the fourth quarter. Hornacek played a lineup of reserves to start the quarter and the Knicks were outscored 7-0 in the first two minutes. Hornacek defended his decision, saying that he needed to rest his starters over the course of the game.

“The hope is that you have confidence in your guys on the bench,” he said. “You have to have confidence in them if they’re going to go out there for a few minutes and give the starters some rest.”

Not much triangle: A scout who watched the Knicks-Bulls game on Friday said the club didn't run many plays out of a triangle set. That seems consistent with the Knicks' approach for all six games this season. When a reporter mentioned the triangle in a question on Sunday, Anthony said he didn’t want to keep harping on the topic.

“We’re just playing basketball. We’re making adjustments offensively regardless of what we’re running. At this point I’m getting tired of hearing about the triangle,” he said. “It’s just getting tired of hearing about it. We’re playing basketball. We’re figuring it out, becoming more comfortable with one another out there on the court, playing off of each other. Things are going well for us offensively right now. We’ve just got to get the defensive side of it.”

Knicks don't want to play solely through Porzingis: Some fans, pundits and coaches around the NBA believe the Knicks should play through Porzingis this season. Thus far, Porzingis has the third-highest usage on the team, per NBA.com's tracking (usage is a measure of the percentage of a team's possessions a player uses while on the court). He has the third-most shot attempts per game (13.2, which is 5.5 fewer than Anthony) and is New York's second-leading scorer (18.8 points per game). But the Knicks don't plan on running the offense primarily through Porzingis -- or any other player -- this season, according to Hornacek.

"What did he, just turn 21?" Hornacek said, referencing the idea that Porzingis is too young to have that kind of responsibility. "Second year in the league -- when you have players like Carmelo and now Derrick, guys who have proven it in this league for years. [Noah is] a veteran. We try not make [Porzingis] be the focal point, but we’re trying not to make Carmelo necessarily the focal point or Derrick the focal point. We want everybody to be involved. We had great balance last game with shooting. We had a pretty good balance from everybody. So like I said, some nights he might have more. Some nights he just may be off. That’s how the game goes."