“Do your f–king job.”
It’s the strongest quote on a night full of blame to go around in the Knicks’ 114–97 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday — New York’s ninth loss in its last 11 games — this time at the hands of a Mavericks team with an injury list stretching further than the Manhattan Bridge.
The Knicks turned in their most embarrassing half of the season, allowing Dallas to score 75 first-half points in what the Mavs turned into a track meet at Madison Square Garden.
“At halftime, we usually [show] the clips and talk about technical Xs and Os and all that crap that coaches do, teams do,” head coach Mike Brown explained after the loss. “There was nothing to be said at halftime except for lock in and do your f–king — excuse me on that — do your job.”
The Knicks did their job in the second half. They held the Mavericks to just 39 combined points in the third and fourth quarters and won the second half by 11 — despite scoring only three more points than they managed through the first two periods.
But it was far too little, far too late against a shorthanded Mavericks team that built a 30-point lead during New York’s worst defensive stretch of a season that has suddenly gone off the rails.
And the fans, in a new low at The Garden, let the Knicks hear it.
“I mean, I’d be booing us, too,” said Jalen Brunson. “Straight up.”
“You’ve saved up to bring your family to this game, and for us to come here, and obviously to not only not win — which is disappointing — but to not really have a chance?” added Karl-Anthony Towns. “I’d be disappointed, too.”
“We all need to do some soul searching.” — Josh Hart
Hart’s diagnosis for the Knicks’ midseason issues is simple: start with the mirror. X’s and O’s can only take a team so far, and Hart says schematics are far from the problem at MSG.
“100 percent. We all need to do some soul searching. We all have to come out here and make sure we’re focused on winning the game, winning each possession,” he said. “Last year, there were games that we played [where] we didn’t shoot the ball, we couldn’t score, but we said ‘we’re gonna lock in and we’re gonna play defense, we’re gonna play physical, and we’re gonna make it tough.’
“It’s the same group of guys, so how we’re playing right now is really inexcusable. We all gotta look in the mirror and do some soul searching.”
Brown hammered that point home after the loss. After all, the Knicks know how to close out on lethal shooters.
Their head coach calls them “hot guys.” In the NBA Cup Final, the Knicks held Harrison Barnes, De’Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell and Victor Wembanyama to a combined 6-of-23 from three-point range.
Yet on Monday, Max Christie joined the MSG record books with an 8-of-10 shooting performance from deep, and Klay Thompson — with megastar girlfriend Megan Thee Stallion cheering him courtside — shot 4-of-7 from behind the arc.
“The two guys that we labeled hot — and we know how to close out to hot guys; we know how to play hot guys — they were 9-for-11 in the first half,” Brown said. “And most of those shots were open or we left our feet when they [pump-faked] the ball, and then they were open.”
In the second half, Christie and Thompson combined to shoot just 3-of-6 from three.
“No [change to the] X’s and O’s. No. Just do your job,” Brown continued. “Play with physicality and do your job early. The whole second half, they scored 39 points. The second quarter, they scored 44 points.
“Again, no adjustments. Just go do your job. So it’s within our guys, but we all have to do our job for 48 minutes. And it didn’t happen tonight — and it was evident. Doesn’t matter who’s in the uniform in front of you. You’ve gotta do your [expletive] job.”
“We have a special team, and we’ve got a special opportunity, and we can’t just let it go to waste.” — Karl-Anthony Towns
On paper, this is the healthiest the Knicks have been all season. In reality, Brunson and Hart returned early from ankle injuries in an attempt to give their struggling team a lifeline on Monday.
The Mavericks, however, were without Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, centers Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, plus role players D’Angelo Russell, P.J. Washington and Dante Exum.
The Knicks had no business losing to Dallas’ B-minus team at home, fully loaded. A month ago, they would have cruised to an easy win over a lesser opponent. Two months ago, on Nov. 19, they beat the Mavericks in Dallas — in a game the Mavs had more healthy bodies at their disposal.
“They were doing whatever,” said Miles McBride. “Transition. Getting to the paint. Eurostepping us. Finishing. Then kicking out when guys finally helped. We just had no cohesiveness on that end. And then we go on to the other end. Tough shots. And they get out in transition and the dominos are really falling for them.”
The Knicks’ stock has plummeted virtually overnight. This team has drifted away from the brand of basketball that earned it a championship trophy — and no one can quite pinpoint why.
“It doesn’t matter when [we stopped playing that way],” said Towns. “It matters that [we] did. So we’ve gotta figure it out.
“We have a special team, and we’ve got a special opportunity, and we can’t just let it go to waste.”
“Either we do it — we care enough to do it — or we don’t.” — Jalen Brunson
Maybe the Knicks know why. They’re just choosing not to say it out loud.
Towns’ eyes darted around before answering. McBride concealed frustration with a grin. Hart exhaled deeply. Brunson kept things in-house.
“There’s been a lot of things to pinpoint,” said Brunson. “But as a team we know what we have to do. Either we do it — we care enough to do it — or we don’t.”
The Knicks’ captain still believes. This is the strongest bout of adversity he’s faced since arriving in New York.
“I have the utmost confidence in every person in this room, in this locker room,” he said. “Just things haven’t gone our way. But we have the ability to do it.”
The Knicks are not playing Knicks basketball. They haven’t been for quite some time. Brown echoed Brunson’s belief. Only a month ago, he stood on this same floor celebrating an NBA Cup championship.
“There’s no doubt in my mind,” Brown said. “I believe in everybody in that locker room. You can ask them — I feel they believe in each other, too. We’re going through it. We’ve got to figure out how to get out of it.”
“Last year, no matter what we did, the effort was there.” — Josh Hart
The elephant in the room is that not much has changed with this roster since the Knicks replaced Tom Thibodeau with Brown over the summer. New York added Guerschon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson in free agency, but neither logged more than three minutes against Dallas. Brown ran an eight-man rotation in a must-win game with his full roster available, despite saying in training camp he hoped to play closer to 10.
“It’s the same group,” Hart said. “When we figure out what we’re doing in terms of playing with urgency, playing with desperation, I think that [other] stuff will come. Guys are gonna be banged up. Guys aren’t gonna be 100 percent. It’s the dog days of the season.
“But the effort? Last year, no matter what we did, the effort was there. I haven’t seen this kind of effort that we had today. It was embarrassing.”
Hart left his teammates with one final reality check after the Knicks’ ninth loss in 11 games.
“We have to make sure we have a professional mindset,” he said. “We can’t go into practice and have things said several times. We can’t come out and not execute an ATO.
“At this point, 40 games in, normally you don’t put too much into struggles. But at this point, we have to play desperate — because that’s what we are right now.”
