Mike Brown downplays Knicks’ loss to Thunder as a ‘lesson’ with playoffs approaching

NEW YORK – The New York Knicks lost 103-100 to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, with the NBA’s reigning champions squeaking out a nail-biter. This was the Knicks’ first crack at the top-seeded Western Conference club, already having failed to beat the East’s No. q seed, the Detroit Pistons, three times.

Despite some noteworthy losses, the Knicks have performed better against top teams under new head coach Mike Brown than they did last season. The coach wouldn’t call the game itself significant, but did emphasize the importance of learning from the matchup postgame.

“Seeing what they did, how they did it, why we shot 28% from the three. Why this happened, why that happened. It’s a great learning experience to grow from,” Brown told reporters at Madison Square Garden. “No matter if you- you want to win. But no matter if you win or lose. And to see the competitiveness out there from our guys was something that I like, as well as the physicality.”

The process-over-results mentality fits the coach, who utilizes the regular season as an information-collecting period to make the most of his personnel in the postseason. He has often stated as much, treating Knicks regular season losses like opportunities to learn, not failed chances to compete.

Regardless of how one spins it, the Knicks’ margin for error in the playoffs is steadily getting even smaller. Will these regular season losses become topics of discussion if the team can’t deliver postseason results?

The pressure to outperform last season’s Eastern Conference Finals berth was already high going into the season. And with six more weeks left until the NBA Playoffs, it seems it’s only going to continue to mount.

Finals preview? Brown, Daigneault both play it cool

Brown downplayed the significance of the matchup after the game, telling reporters he thinks regular season “statement games” are oxymoronic.

“I don’t believe in the statement games just because in the playoffs, it’s a different season, you know? … They’re one of the elite teams defensively. You can probably get more from that film than, maybe, from a team that might be 29th defensively,” the coach said.

Mark Daigneault shared a similar sentiment before the game, telling reporters that the Knicks are a “great test” for his Thunder and crediting New York as being one of the league’s best groups. The coach was asked if he thinks about games like Wednesday’s as potential Finals previews, answering quickly that early March is still too soon to put any thought into playoff matchups.

Brown clearly values opportunities to have teams like the Thunder test his Knicks’ mettle. His zoomed-out approach to these games, though, seeing them as data points that comprise a long season as opposed to individual wars of attrition, is representative of the exact philosophical shift that the Knicks’ front office wanted out of their coaching change.

New York will travel to Oklahoma City in late March for the teams’ second and final regular season matchup. After that, one thing is clear, whether Daigneault wants to acknowledge it or not. If these teams meet again, it’ll be in the 2026 NBA Finals.

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