Knicks head coach Mike Brown believes his team is trending in the right direction despite dropping eight of its last 10 games entering Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day matchup against the Dallas Mavericks.
“We were doing [playing well]. I even said this back then, we were winning games, but as time went on, we weren’t able to get together [practice] as much as I’d like, and we started to have a little slippage and it showed,” Brown said ahead of tipoff at Madison Square Garden on Monday. “Now we’ve had a little time to get together. We have to try to continue to help them on both sides of the ball. Hopefully, we’ll start trending up again.”
The Knicks entered the Mavericks game with a 2-8 record since Dec. 30 and a 7-10 record since winning the NBA Cup on Dec. 16. They were 18-7 prior to the Cup and entered the MLK Day matchup with a 25-17 record, good for third place in the Eastern Conference behind the Detroit Pistons (30-10) and Boston Celtics (26-15). The Celtics walked into the holiday 1.5 games ahead of the Knicks in the standings despite All-Star forward Jayson Tatum not being in the lineup due to an Achilles injury.
Brown said he saw a positive in Saturday’s 106-99 loss to the Phoenix Suns.
“We played fairly well I thought in Portland on both sides of the ball. We laid an egg in Sacramento. I thought we were better in Golden State. I thought we were really good in our last game [against the Suns], especially defensively,” he continued. “I thought it was probably one of our best defensive games, against Phoenix in our last game. We just couldn’t close.”
BRUNSON, HART BACK
The Knicks welcomed both Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart back to the rotation on Monday. Brunson had missed the Knicks’ last two games after exiting the Sacramento game five minutes in with an ankle injury, and Hart — who missed two-and-a-half weeks after sustaining a Christmas Day ankle injury — returned to the lineup after missing Saturday’s loss to the Suns with ankle soreness.
Hart said he couldn’t diagnose exactly what New York’s issues have been during the team’s recent skid.
“If I could, I don’t think we’d be in this stretch. I don’t know, I think it’s a combination of stuff,” he said. “Just gotta be better defensively, more physical, into the ball, more effort, more energy. That kind of stuff.”
Hart said it’s usual NBA practice for teams to take their foot off the gas in-between Christmas and the mid-February NBA All-Star break.
“I can’t say that I’m surprised because obviously January — middle of January especially — those are the kind of dog days of the season. So not too surprised; you kind of see a few teams around kind of showing that fatigue,” he said. “You know it happens every year. And then kind of refresh at All Star, right after All Star and kind of just carry that through. So, you know, it happens.”
MINUTES SHEET
Brown said he had a revelation when he went to fill out his minutes distribution sheet on Monday.
“When I was trying to figure out our rotation tonight or minutes sheet, this felt like it was the first time all year we had our 14 roster guys together. It was really unique,” he said ahead of tipoff. “
The Knicks’ coach said he had plans to try a lineup against the Mavericks on Monday, only to learn that group hadn’t logged any minutes together this season
“I sent one of our analytics guys a combination of players that I wanted to play together, and I said ‘Hey, what does this group look like analytically, offensively, defensively?’ They said, ‘We haven’t played that combination together before.’ I was like ‘OK, that will be something new that we see today.’
“Anytime you’re missing anybody, it’s tough, but I said this before: this is why we have 16 guys. At the beginning of the season, we were missing guys and we found a way to get it done. If we’re missing guys in the future, we have to continue to try to find ways to get it done.”
