The Knicks might be down bodies, but they’re up in the win column.
Sunday’s win over the Toronto Raptors marked four straight for a Knicks team still searching for solutions while OG Anunoby (hamstring) and Landry Shamet (shoulder) remain sidelined due to injury. The streak features victories over the Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks, Charlotte Hornets and Brooklyn Nets — some wins more impressive than others, sure, but all valuable for a team recalibrating on the fly without two rotation staples.
And there’s no room for excuses — not when the Knicks refuse to make any for themselves. So what if the Raptors were without R.J. Barrett, or if Giannis Antetokounmpo returned on a minutes limit after a groin injury?
The Knicks are stacking wins while shorthanded, and they’re doing it at a deficit. They entered Tuesday’s matchup with the Boston Celtics riding the NBA’s second-longest active winning streak.
No. 1 on that list? Naturally: the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder, winners of 12 straight. Not the worst company to keep close by.
Both Mikal Bridges and Miles McBride say the Knicks’ streak starts on the defensive end. Coincidentally, the run began the moment Mike Brown reshuffled his rotation, inserting Josh Hart into the starting lineup — in a game Mitchell Robinson missed due to illness.
Brown never looked back. He later admitted benching Hart earlier in the season was “the wrong thing to do.” Since the change, the Knicks own the NBA’s best net rating — outscoring opponents by 17.6 points per 100 possessions — and rank third in defensive efficiency behind only Oklahoma City and the Indiana Pacers.
“Definitely the defensive end,” McBride said after the win over Toronto. “I think we’re communicating a lot better. Tonight we had some bumps getting back in transition. They got out, but that’s what they do really well so give credit to them. I feel defensively we just locked in a lot more.”
Bridges remains the team’s internal skeptic — the tension point they probably need. He brushed aside New York’s 10–1 home record and immediately shifted the focus to their 3–5 struggles away from home. And while the Knicks won — and won big — against the Raptors on Sunday, Bridges was quick to point out they nearly blew it.
“I think just [being] aggressive on defense and staying with it, and it’s a game of runs. We were up a lot today, and Scottie hit a lot of threes today to bring them back,” he said. “So just staying the course. They’re a really good team. You’re not gonna beat every team by 20 or 30. It’s a game of runs so just staying with it all the time and not getting discouraged when they go on a run.”
Perhaps the most impressive part of the four-game streak is that it’s happening without two core rotation pieces. Anunoby is the Knicks’ most dominant defender, and Shamet has quickly become one of the best value signings in the league.
Yet this is why Brown overhauled the offense in training camp. It’s not about who’s missing. It’s about who executes.
The schedule will stiffen. The opponents will improve. The margin for error will shrink.
But the Knicks, shorthanded as they are, have found ways to win.
“[We’re] holding each other more accountable, paying attention to detail a little bit more. I think we can still get better at that,” said team captain Jalen Brunson. “I think the little things matter more than you think, and if we keep believing that and keep doing that, we’ll keep winning games. But playing in this league — there’s obviously so much talent in this league — the little things can make or break wins and losses. So we’ve gotta continue to do all the little stuff and keep piggybacking and going off those wins.”
