Courtney Lee posted ‘Dumb & Dumber’ pictures on Instagram after the Knicks benched him and lost

There are a bevy of factors in play with the New York Knicks’ massive midseason crumble, and apparently Courtney Lee was one of them. So head coach Jeff Hornacek tried something new — he benched his $50 million shooting guard in favor of rookie Ron Baker.

The Knicks went on to lose their Martin Luther King, Jr. Day matchup against a Dwight Howard-less Atlanta Hawks team, 108-107. Lee did not play in the second half and posted pictures from the comedy Dumb & Dumber on his Instagram account. (He later deleted them, but we preserved the screenshots).

Lee updated his Instagram shortly afterwards to say he was only expressing his mood, not taking shots at coaches or his move to the bench.

I posted a pic of dumb n dumber cuz that was my mood, no jab at no1. It’s dumb that we have a talented team and we’re in position to win games n keep losing by 1 possession. We’ll figure it out collectively as a team but that was my mood after the game. Has nothing to with any change, rotation, system, players, coaches, so let that be clear. In other news Happy MLK day.

Lee said his move to the bench was influenced by Hornacek liking a play he and Brandon Jennings ran together in New York’s 116-101 loss to the Toronto Raptors. “He liked what we did last game where we ran one play that whole game and it worked,” Lee said.

Jennings wasn’t buying it.

“That’s why Courtney was in the second unit, because we ran one play?” he asked, according to Bleacher Report’s Yaron Weitzman, before saying it was just one play they ran once while down 30 points.

Lee also said it may have been an attempt to bolster a middle-of-the-road second unit that scores 32.7 points per game, ranking 20th among benches in the NBA.

“He said he wanted to get a look at me in the second unit being more of a scoring option,” Lee said. “So, coach’s call.”

The 31-year-old Lee, being the professional he is, took his reserve role in stride — at least when asked by reporters.

“Before the game, he told me that we’ve got to shake things up, try to make things a bit different, and hope this helps us get out of this losing funk,” Lee said after the game. “So that’s part of being a professional. Sometimes, you gotta switch things up, and he felt that was going to help us win the game.”

The Knicks (18-24) have lost 14 of their last 18 games and are now six games below .500. New York has a lot of issues to address, but Lee’s play may be the least of the Knicks’ worries.