New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony has admitted that the atmosphere at the side is "challenging" as their worst streak of the season continues.

The Knicks lost to the Toronto Raptors by 27 points on Monday to take them to 12 defeats in their last 14 games, and three defeats in four since Kurt Rambis took over from Derek Fisher.

"It's been tough. It's challenging," Anthony told reporters after the loss at Madison Square Garden. "It's challenging to kind of stay strong and positive through all this.

"Regardless of the record, just losing, accepting that - it is hard to accept that. You can't be satisfied with losing basketball games.

"We just got to want to do it. We want to get out there and want to play. We want to compete. I don't think it's anything to do with kind of X's and O's. I think we got to take it upon ourselves individually, take the challenge as a group, have each other's backs out there. We can't beat nobody giving up [almost] 60 paint points. Impossible."

The Knicks, who are 24-34 and third in the Atlantic division, are next in action tonight when they visit the Indiana Pacers.