Mike Brown took one thing of a silver lining from the Knicks’ 0-3 highway journey.
Though the consecutive losses in Miami, Milwaukee and Chicago served as a actuality test for a staff with championship aspirations, Brown believes his new-look Knicks delivered their two greatest halves of the season throughout that in any other case uninspiring stretch.
The following step, Brown says, is to play that method persistently.
“I said this to [Knicks president] Leon [Rose]. Even after our first two wins, I said, ‘Hey, we can play better.’ We got the win, but we’ve got to play much better,” Brown mentioned Sunday, earlier than starting a season-long seven-game homestand by internet hosting the Chicago Bulls.
“After that second win, if you include preseason, we were 6-1, but we were learning and growing. We hadn’t played well. Our two best halves of basketball were the first half in Milwaukee and the second half in Chicago. Hopefully, we can string 48 minutes together, but it’s a process, and our guys are getting better.”
The Knicks led by 12 factors at halftime earlier than faltering defensively in Tuesday’s 121-111 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Three days later, the Knicks surrendered 72 first-half factors earlier than outscoring the Bulls by 9 within the second half of that 135-125 defeat.
Sunday’s sport was the Knicks’ sixth below Brown, who was employed as head coach within the offseason to switch Tom Thibodeau.
The Knicks have been with out middle Mitchell Robinson (left ankle harm administration) for the primary 4 of these video games, whereas guard Josh Hart missed final month’s season-opening win over the Cleveland Cavaliers with lumbar spasms and struggled upon returning.
Karl-Anthony Cities has not missed a sport, regardless of coping with what he described after the season opener as a Grade 2 quad pressure.
These accidents have difficult the Knicks’ progress below Brown, who can be making an attempt to include a revamped bench that added guard Jordan Clarkson and ahead Guerschon Yabusele in the course of the offseason and that’s needed to navigate the sudden retirement of backup level guard Malcolm Brogdon.
“There’s a lot of newness, but if you’re out, you’re out, and there’s no reps there,” Brown mentioned. “So we just have to keep learning on the fly, starting with me. I’ve got to keep trying to get better quicker, and everybody has to get better quicker.”
The Knicks started Sunday ranked eleventh within the NBA by permitting 115.4 factors per sport, however they surrendered 123.7 factors per sport in the course of the winless highway journey.
Offensively, the Knicks entered Sunday ranked twenty fifth in factors per sport (113.4) and twenty eighth in area purpose share (42.4%) on the season.
“The one thing that can be consistent for us is on the defensive side of the floor,” Brown mentioned. “We need to make sure that we’re consistent on that end of the floor while we’re getting caught up to speed offensively, which will happen.”
ROBINSON ACTIVE
Robinson began Sunday’s sport after coming in listed as questionable for harm administration on his left ankle.
The 7-foot middle made his season debut on Friday and scored 4 factors with 11 rebounds in 20 minutes.
The Knicks proceed to be cautious with Robinson, their defensive anchor, after he underwent surgical procedures on that left ankle in December of 2023 and Could of 2024.
Robinson appeared in solely 17 video games final common season earlier than being a big contributor in the course of the Knicks’ run to the Japanese Convention Finals.
Brown mentioned it might be as much as coach Casey Smith and his staff to find out whether or not Robinson would even be accessible for Monday’s sport in opposition to the Washington Wizards, which is the second leg of the Knicks’ first back-to-back of the season.
“I’m just gonna follow their lead,” Brown mentioned. “I know they told me they can play today, so I’m gonna take it.”
