Mike Brown’s post-game press conference had an important theme. He spoke almost exclusively on one subject.
“I just hope that sooner or later our guys collectively want to keep up the play on the defensive end of the court the right way,” Brown said after the Knicks’ 134-132 loss to the Spurs in San Antonio. “We’ll find out offensively as the game goes on. But if you play the way we play defensively, which is in spurts, you continue to give a team hope. And if you give a team hope in this league, guys are too talented. They’ll find a way, especially a good team.”
That’s exactly what the Spurs did, scoring 41 points in the fourth quarter to come back and snap the Knicks’ three-game win streak.
The Knicks’ lax defense was an issue during their just-completed three-game road trip, but was covered up by late-game heroics and strong offensive production.
They probably deserved to lose to both the Hawks and Pelicans with the way they defended, but managed to redeem themselves in the end. It finally caught up with them on Wednesday.
They were without Josh Hart (ankle) for all three games of the road trip and Mitchell Robinson (load management) for the final two games. They are two of the strongest Knicks defensemen and should certainly make a difference when they return.
But it goes back further than that, when they both played. In eight games since their NBA Cup victory, the Knicks have a defensive rating of 120.9 – fourth-worst in the NBA over that stretch.
“I really believe the guys care and want to try to do the right thing,” Brown said. “We just haven’t done it. We’ve got to go do it. Sometimes when you win games, it’s human nature to subconsciously think, ‘It’s going to happen,’ if it does happen. Maybe that’s the case, I don’t know. But what I do know is that we have to maintain what we’re trying to do defensively for 48 minutes and not look back on a game and say, ‘man, if we had been a little more physical here, a little smarter here and play’ with a sense of urgency for 48 minutes defensively we had a great chance to win.’ But I can’t say that.”
At one point in the fourth quarter, when the Knicks were up eight with 7:30 to go in the game, Tyler Kolek backed up too far when Julian Champagnie dribbled up the court in transition, allowing him to pull up for an easy and uncontested 3. Brown immediately called a timeout and was as animated and direct as he has been all year, reaching out to Kolek in frustration with his arms outstretched.
Brown even mimicked how Kolek should have defended it, and their conversation continued on the bench as play resumed.
It was emblematic of how Brown felt his entire team was defended.
The defensive effort is there from time to time, especially when they are facing deficits and losses or are in crisis. But it hasn’t been consistent for entire games.
“When we wake up, we say, ‘Okay, we’re good.’ And we have three or four just bad defensive plays in a row,” Brown said. “It’s not like their execution, and I’m not taking anything away from them, but it’s not like their execution is great or anything. It’s just like, ‘Okay, you know what? I’m going to jog through this a little bit and I’m going to track down this handsome man.’ And then he catches and shoots a wide-open 3. Or “I’m not going to move all the way in and tag the roll man, I’m just going to stay here.” It’s things like that that are within our control and over which we have no control. And we do it throughout the entire match.”
Winning can mask these kinds of problems. Recently, the Knicks have found ways to win despite their soft defense.
But the first two games of the road trip came against weak opposition from the Hawks and Pelicans. Against a rival like Spurs it is much more difficult to overcome.
“It’s great when you win and you can still work things out, but a loss really brings you back to reality,” Miles McBride said. “And that certainly applied to us tonight.”
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