Knicks fail to ‘do their jobs’ in 4th straight loss as team reaches new low

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. – The New York Knicks are amid their second four-game losing streak of the season. Winning can cure all. Losing, however, tends to magnify even the smallest issues. The team’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day loss to the depleted Dallas Mavericks left them with plenty to address in practice.

Mikal Bridges’ aversion to contact at the rim highlights his skill when the mid-range shots fall, but leads to groans at Madison Square Garden when they don’t. Karl-Anthony Towns’ disconnect with head coach Mike Brown is bleeding onto the court and into postgame press availabilities.

The coach called out his entire group when addressing reporters after the embarrassment.

“Bottom line is, we gotta lock in. We gotta do our job for 48 minutes. They scored 75 points in the first half, and at halftime, you know, we usually do the clips and talk about technical X’s and O’s and all that crap that coaches do and teams do. There was nothing to be said at halftime, except for ‘lock in and do your f– excuse me on that,” the coach said, uttering his first profanity of the season. “Do your job.”

Whatever the reason for the disconnect between the coach and his players, it will continue to result in disjointed losses until solved. Saturday night’s defeat at the hands of the Phoenix Suns fell on “Alumni Day” at MSG, with Brown telling reporters before the game that his group shouldn’t need extra motivation to win. On Monday, their 30-point halftime deficit reaffirmed that they were in dire need of it.

Mike Brown, Knicks need to sync up before this stretch defines them

It’s the job of the coaching staff to prepare their players for opponents and get them working in tandem toward a common goal over the course of the season. The Knicks banded together for an NBA Cup victory, showing that this coach and roster are capable of putting their heels in the sand of this losing streak.

Calculating proportional slices of blame pie is wasted time, particularly at this point in the season. The Knicks need to “look in the mirror,” as Brown said on Saturday, and decide if they like what they see. It’s clear from the frustration the coach and his players have conveyed in postgame media availabilities that they do not.

Team Captain Jalen Brunson will have his leadership tested as well. After practice on Tuesday, he repeated his answer from the night before regarding the need for change. It was the same answer Brunson gave at media day ahead of the regular season, when asked about adapting to Brown’s system.

“It’s either you want to do it, or don’t.”

The Knicks say they want to adapt. They say they want to play better. They say they’re better than the team they’ve looked like over their last 11 games, of which they’ve won just two. Adversity fosters growth when the parties involved have the right mindsets. New York’s coaches and players will reveal theirs in the coming weeks.

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