The Knicks deserve slightly grace. Simply not an excessive amount of.
As a result of if the NBA Cup has taught the league something in its temporary however revealing historical past, it’s that profitable it doesn’t assure postseason success.
The Los Angeles Lakers realized that lesson first. They entered the inaugural 2023 NBA Cup Last at 14-9, lifted the trophy in Las Vegas, then wakened on Jan. 5 with a 17-19 file — losers of 10 of their subsequent 13 video games after the confetti settled. The Milwaukee Bucks adopted swimsuit a 12 months later, profitable the 2024 Cup earlier than dropping 5 of their subsequent eight video games.
Neither crew parlayed December glory into spring success. The Bucks completed because the East’s No. 5 seed in 2025. The Lakers scraped into the Play-In Match in 2024 and landed the seventh seed out West. Each had been bounced within the first spherical.
These had been the opening chapters of the In-Season Match. 12 months 3 belongs to the Knicks.
And like their predecessors, the Knicks stumbled out of the afterglow. Simply because the Lakers and Bucks earlier than them, the Knicks had been met with a brutal road-home back-to-back instantly following their Cup triumph. They break up it — stealing a Hail Mary win in Indiana earlier than unanswered prayers met them at Madison Sq. Backyard in Friday’s loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
“Yeah man, we weren’t really looking too far ahead [of the Cup], so we didn’t realize how challenging game two [would be],” Josh Hart stated after the loss. “Winning the NBA Cup and then going right into a back-to-back, and then we got a game on Sunday. So we knew it was gonna be a challenge. We’ve just gotta make sure we get our bodies right and get some sleep, get some good food and try to get it back on Sunday.”
The temporary skid complicates analysis. A 3rd of the season is gone, but the info feels distorted — a championship spike adopted by a scheduling crash.
“Prior to the NBA Cup, especially the Final, I liked where we were. I thought we were really trending in the right direction,” head coach Mike Brown stated forward of tipoff towards the Miami Warmth on Sunday. “It’s slightly funky. And we’re attempting to navigate our approach via ensuring we deal with the post-Cup.
“So as a coach, when you watch the way we played in those two games, there are things I don’t like, you know? But I’m not gonna beat them up for it, and I’m not gonna belabor it too much because this is uncharted territory for me as a coach and for them as players, too. So I’m not sure [how to assess my team]. I’m not sure, but prior to the championship game, I liked where we were on both sides of the ball.”
Brown has been constant in a single perception: The common season shouldn’t be linear. There are peaks. There are valleys. And the climb solely will get steeper from right here.
Sunday’s matchup towards Miami marked the primary of 10 projected playoff opponents within the Knicks’ subsequent 11 video games. By means of February, New York is slated to face 23 playoff groups. It’s already performed 16 such video games via the season’s first two months.
The schedule hasn’t been impartial, both. The Knicks had the seventh-easiest slate via Dec. 20, based on CraftedNBA. Over the subsequent two weeks, their schedule ranks ninth-toughest.
“You’re not just gonna do this,” Brown stated, motioning upward. “As a coach, I’m being grasping proper now. I simply need to do that (up gesture), however the actuality of it’s, you’re gonna do that, you then’re gonna take a pair steps backwards, and hopefully it’s a pair and it’s not 4, or 5, or six steps backwards, and you then’re gonna go right here (gestures up) once more with it, particularly in an 82-game season.
“And so I understand it, and I just have to make sure that I stay here, and I try to continue to help us grow in the right direction and keep the guys uplifted when we’re not playing our best basketball.”
So sure — the Knicks deserve some grace. They earned the correct to drop a sport that by no means ought to’ve been scheduled the way in which it was.
“You’ve always gotta give yourself some type of grace. [Philadelphia’s] last game was probably five or six days ago,” Hart stated. “So it’s an up and down season. You’re gonna have games like this, games where you feel like you can’t find it, when the game is right there and it’s just one extra-effort play and you feel like you can’t get that extra-effort play. So it happens. It’s a long season.”
However grace has limits. This crew is aware of it may’t stay off December confetti — not when the Cup is merely the appetizer.
“No [grace],” Jalen Brunson stated. “We’ve gotta hold each other to a higher standard. I’ve gotta hold myself to a higher standard. It’s not like we got blown out [on Friday]. It was very winnable. But you’ve gotta give them credit. [Philadelphia] made plays down the stretch and we didn’t, and — no. To answer your question: No [grace].”
