CHICAGO — Knicks head coach Mike Brown didn’t sugarcoat it.
After watching his workforce fall 135–125 to the Bulls on Halloween — their third straight loss and a winless finish to their first highway journey of the season — Brown unloaded on his gamers’ lack of defensive effort.
“Our ability to guard the basketball was not good in the first half. We were getting blown by possession after possession after possession and guys were finishing at the rim with no help defense there. And if we did bring help, they sprayed the ball like they play, and we didn’t get the shooters. We didn’t close with a purpose and get to their air space to make them uncomfortable,” Brown mentioned after his workforce dropped under .500 for the primary time this yr.
“Our defense tonight was nonexistent and it starts with guarding the basketball. We have to be better guarding the basketball. And it has to be with a sense of physicality because if we don’t, teams are gonna do exactly what Chicago did tonight on the offensive end of the floor.”
The Bulls sliced by way of New York’s protection from the opening tip. They scored 35 factors within the first quarter and 37 within the second — turning a recreation that regarded even on paper right into a mismatch on the ground. Six Chicago gamers completed in double figures, together with a career-high 32 factors from Josh Giddey and 26 from Nikola Vucevic.
“They got whatever they wanted,” mentioned workforce captain Jalen Brunson, who led the Knicks with 29 factors on 12-of-25 taking pictures.
Brown pointed to an absence of game-plan self-discipline as the basis trigger. The Knicks allowed Bulls reserve Ayo Dosunmu to torch them for 22 factors on 8-of-10 taking pictures — lots of them in almost equivalent vogue.
“I know there were a lot of things game plan wise that we didn’t adhere to, and I can give you a great example: Ayo is a good player,” Brown mentioned. “But seven of his baskets, probably six of them were going to his right hand. And we don’t want to give up the outside first of all, and secondly we don’t want him to be able to get to his right hand and we did that possession after possession after possession.”
The breakdowns didn’t cease there. The Knicks additionally surrendered 17 made threes on 37 Bulls makes an attempt — a byproduct, Brown mentioned, of overaggressive and undisciplined closeouts that gave Chicago driving lanes and second-chance seems to be.
The Bulls shot 17-of-37 from three-point vary, persevering with a troubling early-season sample for New York’s protection. Two nights earlier, the Bucks went 14-of-34 (41%) from deep in Milwaukee. Earlier than that, the Warmth linked on 13-of-37 (35%) in Miami.
“[The Bulls] touched the paint too much, and they were making shots,” mentioned Karl-Anthony Cities. “We knew how well they were playing coming into the game and we just didn’t do enough to play at that kind of level.”
Brown mentioned the Knicks’ perimeter points begin with poor ball containment and overzealous closeouts that compromise the workforce’s assist rotations — a recipe that retains producing the identical consequence.
“When we close out to guys, we’ve gotta do the best we can to take away their air space but not over run guys. We over ran about four or five guys in the first half and when that happens, they get to the paint, now the help comes, and that’s when the spray threes come,” Brown mentioned. “So we have to do a better job on the ball knowing who we’re guarding, and then on our close-outs, we’ve gotta do a better job of closing out, taking out the air space and sitting down and guarding.”
For the Knicks, it was a humbling defensive failure — one which Brunson couldn’t clarify, solely personal.
“We just didn’t have any game plan discipline. We didn’t do what was asked of us,” he mentioned. “Coach comes up with a game plan and it’s on us to deliver. We can’t switch the game plan if we’re not doing the game plan hard enough. I don’t know what to say.”
