AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Joakim Noah wasn’t happy about the Knicks’ defensive posture to start the game. Neither was Derrick Rose, who even invoked the forbidden name of their former Bulls coach and defensive guru Tom Thibodeau in the locker room after a 102-89 loss to the Pistons at The Palace.

The Knicks couldn’t defend at the start and couldn’t score at the finish. The Pistons rang up 64 first-half points and the Knicks’ rally fell short, going the final 5:40 without a point with Carmelo Anthony leading the frigid brigade. The Knicks finished the game on an 0-for-9, two-turnover schneid to fall to 1-2.

Rose implied the culture of defense has yet to be established by new coach Jeff Hornacek. When he was looking for a coach this summer, Knicks president Phil Jackson never reached out to Thibodeau, now running the Timberwolves.

“We got to do that,” Rose said when asked about the team having a defensive identity like the Bulls did during his years in Chicago. “I played on teams before Thibs got to Chicago. We didn’t have an identity. He came and changed the culture there and changed our identity. We can do that here. We have to and we’re going to do. But it takes time.”

The Knicks buckled down defensively late, but scored just 10 points in the final period. Noah felt the tone was set early when the Pistons scored at will inside.

“Disappointing loss today,’’ Noah said. “We didn’t come out with the right intensity. We can’t give up baskets like that. It gives a team way too much confidence, especially in the beginning of the game, giving up layups and open shots. We got a lot of work to do.’’

Hornacek questioned the team’s conditioning. The coach said he believed the team “ran out of gas at the end” from playing from behind all night.

“Maybe we’re not in condition to play defense and offense for all 48 minutes,” Hornacek said. “It looked like they were getting a little tired and that’s going to affect their shooting.”

Anthony finished with 24 points, but missed his final three shots and had a late turnover. He said the game-ending offensive frost is due to the club trying to establish chemistry and figuring out Hornacek’s hybrid triangle-on-speed attack.

“We can’t beat anyone scoring 10 points in the fourth quarter,’’ Anthony said. “We didn’t execute. We’re trying to figure out and get a comfort level to know what are we going to run, how and who are we going to run it for. I don’t think we’re there yet.’’

The Knicks cut it to 94-89 after Derrick Rose (19 points, two assists) froze Ish Smith with a move and hit a pull-up 8-foot banker with 5:40 left. They didn’t score again — as the Pistons ran off the game’s final 10 points. Rose didn’t exactly take the game by the horns down the stretch after a strong first half, nor did he do much defensively in the first two periods.

Long Island’s Tobias Harris finished with a game-high 25 points, and Marcus Morris added 22. Kristaps Porzingis had a poor start, came on in the third quarter but saw lots of bench time in the fourth. He never got untracked, finishing with 18 points. The Knicks, who host Mike D’Antoni’s Rockets on Wednesday, finished shooting 40 percent.

The clincher came when Courtney Lee (seven points) committed a turnover off a timeout and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope drained a 3-pointer to move the lead to 99-89.

The regression of the defense was startling in the first half, when the Pistons shot 55.1 percent.

“When the shots aren’t falling, that’s when we have to depend on our defense even more,’’ Rose said. “All this is a learning process. It’s only the third game.’’

In taking a 64-55 lead, the Pistons found Andre Drummond inside for hoops against a variety of defenders as he scored eight points with nine rebounds in the half. Smith, filling in for injured point guard Reggie Jackson, broke down the defense to the tune of 10 points and eight assists, and Morris abused Anthony, racking up 22 points, making 9 of 14 shots.

It didn’t matter that Rose had a glittering first quarter offensively with 11 points, hitting two jumpers and flying to the hoop for layups. He had 13 by halftime (6 of 9) but with no assists.

The offense was not the issue and it was an issue all preseason. Noah, playing in a black headband to hold up the bandages covering his lacerated ear, was not active on defense, and that suspect effort seemed contagious when the Knicks fell behind by 13 points. Noah did have eight assists and 12 rebounds but scored just two points, including an airball jumper.

“We’re a work in progress on offense and defense,’’ Noah said.