Fans give Knicks earful as struggles continue vs. Mavericks
NEW YORK – As boos rained down as his team left the court after trailing the Dallas Mavericks by 30 points, Knicks coach Mike Brown decided it would be a waste of time to talk about X’s and O’s in the locker room.
“There was nothing to say at halftime other than lock down and do your… do your job,” Brown said Monday, catching himself when he started using an expletive during his news conference.
His message might have been hard to hear, anyway, above the fans at Madison Square Garden who were making it loud and clear how fed up they were with a team losing control of a season that had championship aspirations.
The Knicks went from being NBA Cup champions to not even being able to make it out of the play-in tournament thanks to a January freefall that saw them lose for the ninth time in 11 games with their 114-97 loss to the Mavericks.
As for what’s gone wrong since the Knicks hoisted the Cup last month in Las Vegas?
“There’s a lot to figure out, but I mean as a team we know what we need to do,” captain Jalen Brunson said. “It’s either we do it, we care enough about it, or we don’t.”
Brunson was announced as an All-Star starter earlier Monday, then he and fellow starter Josh Hart were allowed to return from injuries. It looked like a day of celebration at Madison Square Garden.
Instead, the Knicks trailed 16-4 minutes into the game and 75-45 just before halftime. It was just the sixth time the Knicks gave up 75 points in the first half at MSG.
“I didn’t see that kind of effort that we had today. It was embarrassing,” Hart said.
Brown read the stats that showed how embarrassing he was: 27 fast break points for the Mavericks in the first half and 28 in the paint — against an opponent depleted by injuries and without a true post-up player, he noted.
Brown inherited a talented, veteran team when the Knicks surprisingly fired Tom Thibodeau after reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years. Brown gave the Knicks a 23-9 start, but they are now 25-18.
Brunson was asked how the team begins a process of self-reflection.
“It should have started a few weeks ago, but we have to start tomorrow,” he said.
Brunson was seen during the nationally televised game on NBC trying to encourage his teammates during a timeout in the second quarter, but he would not say afterward what his message was. Neither he nor Brown could explain the first-half no-show.
The boos largely stopped in the second half, although they returned in the fourth quarter when Karl-Anthony Towns was knocked out of the game. Towns said he understood the frustration of a day when the Knicks not only didn’t win, but didn’t “really have a chance.”
“The fans are doing their part and we have to do our part,” Towns said.
The Mavericks, meanwhile, welcomed back star rookie Cooper Flagg. He had 18 points in his first professional game at Madison Square Garden after missing Dallas’ previous two games, both wins against the Utah Jazz, with a sprained left ankle. The No. 1 pick also had seven rebounds.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
