MINNEAPOLIS — A defiant Mike Woodson admits he has “failed’’ in some areas but won’t quit.

“I still think I was the guy for the job and I still think I’m the guy for the job,’’ the Knicks coach said Wednesday at the morning shootaround before his team faced the Timberwolves at Target Center.

Entering the contest, the Knicks were in shambles — on a seven-game losing streak, 19 games under .500 and all but out of the playoff race. Many fans and observers can’t understand why owner James Dolan hasn’t put Woodson out of his misery.

Woodson, however, said he doesn’t believe the team has stopped listening to him.

Asked by The Post if his message no longer is reaching the players, Woodson said, “When you lose, everybody tends to reach. Sometimes you might send the wrong message. I think you learn a lot about your basketball team when you do lose. They learn a lot about each other. The character changes a little bit. We’ve had some struggle, a lot of struggles. I don’t think they’re tuning me out. They’re still listening but just not getting it done on the basketball floor.

“That’s the frustrating part of it. We’re in games. We’re competing. Then all of a sudden we forget how to compete. That’s strange as hell from a coaching standpoint. We got to keep working through it. I’m not going to quit. That’s just not my nature. I hope these guys don’t quit. I don’t think they are quitting.’’

The Knicks entered the game 6 ½ games out of the final playoff spot and needed to go 20-1 to finish .500 after grandiose expectations following their 54-28 record last season.

Woodson lost 52 games or more in Atlanta in his first three seasons, but those Hawks teams were young and in rebuilding mode.

“It’s a major challenge,’’ Woodson said of dealing with the losing. “There’s no doubt about that. You come into the season after experiencing two wonderful seasons which the Knicks haven’t done in some years and go through a season like this, it’s been very, very challenging for me. I’m a realist. I look at all the different things that’s happened. I try to put it in proper perspective.

“I’ve tried to deal with it on a day-to-day basis and still try to get the team up to speed and where they need to be as a team on the floor. I feel like I’ve failed somewhat in that area. But again, at the end of the day we still have a shot. My thought process will never change as far as me being a coach here. I still think I was the guy for the job and I still think I’m the guy for the job.’’

Woodson, who has spoken about “coaching harder,’’ said there is no in-fighting and the players get along, despite recent comments suggesting otherwise. J.R. Smith has questioned the team’s “heart,’’ Carmelo Anthony has questioned the team’s “pride’’ and Tyson Chandler has wondered if he wants to be part of the Knicks’ long-term future.

“We’re struggling to win as a group [but] guys seem to get along,’’ Woodson said. “We still talk. We’re just not getting it done on the basketball floor. Guys are OK. They’re not happy about losing. I’m not happy about losing.’’

Anthony likely will miss the postseason for the first time and Amar’e Stoudemire hasn’t been on a team out of the playoffs since his second year in Phoenix in 2003-04.

“This is tougher,’’ Stoudemire said. “One year I had in Phoenix, we traded six of the guys, my second year in the NBA. I expected for us not to make the playoffs. We had high expectations going into the season. Championship hopes. We had division-championship hopes. Right now we’re struggling to make the postseason and we’ll see if we can make that push.”