{"id":511292,"date":"2026-01-02T06:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511292\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T06:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:39:15","slug":"mike-brown-calls-out-knicks-defense-after-lax-ways-finally-catch-up-to-them-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511292\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Brown calls out Knicks\u2019 defense after lax ways finally catch up to them"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a major theme to Mike Brown\u2019s postgame press conference. He talked about one topic almost exclusively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope, sooner than later, our guys collectively want to sustain, the right way, the play on the defensive end of the floor,\u201d Brown said after the Knicks\u2019 134-132 loss to the Spurs <\/a>in San Antonio. \u201cWe\u2019ll figure it out offensively as the game goes on. But when you play the way we play defensively, which is in spurts, you\u2019re gonna keep giving a team hope. And when you give a team hope in this league, guys are too talented. They\u2019re gonna find a way, especially a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s exactly what the Spurs did, scoring 41 points in the fourth quarter to come back and snap the Knicks\u2019 three-game win streak.<\/p>\n

The lax defense by the Knicks was a problem throughout their just-completed three-game road trip but was covered up by late-game heroics and strong offensive production.<\/p>\n

They probably deserved to lose against both the Hawks and Pelicans with how they defended but bailed themselves out down the stretch. On Wednesday it finally caught up to them.<\/p>\n

They were without Josh Hart (ankle) for all three games<\/a> of the road trip and Mitchell Robinson (load management) for the final two games. They are two of the strongest Knicks defenders and should certainly make a difference when they return.<\/p>\n

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But it has gone back further than that, when both were playing. In eight games since their NBA Cup triumph, the Knicks have a defensive rating of 120.9 \u2014 fourth-worst in the NBA over that stretch.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New York Knicks Head Coach Mike Brown gives direction against the New Orleans Pelicans during the second half at Smoothie King Center. Stephen Lew-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly believe that the guys care and they want to try and do the right thing,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe just haven\u2019t done it. We gotta go do it. Sometimes, when you win games, it\u2019s human nature to just think, \u2018It\u2019s gonna happen,\u2019 subconsciously when that does occur. Maybe that\u2019s the case, I don\u2019t know. But what I do know is we have to sustain whatever we\u2019re trying to do defensively, for 48 minutes and not look back on a game and say \u2018man if we would\u2019ve been a little bit more physical here, a little bit smarter here and play with a sense of urgency for 48 minutes defensively, we had a great chance to win.\u2019 But I can\u2019t say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point in the fourth quarter, with the Knicks up by eight with 7:30 left in the game, Tyler Kolek backpedaled too far as Julian Champagnie dribbled up the court in transition, allowing him to pull up for an easy and uncontested 3. Brown immediately called timeout and was as animated and direct as he has been all year, going right over to Kolek with his arms out in frustration.<\/p>\n

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Brown even mimicked how Kolek should have defended it, and their conversation continued on the bench as play resumed.<\/p>\n

It was emblematic of how Brown felt his whole team defended.<\/p>\n

\"De\u2019Aaron<\/p>\n

De\u2019Aaron Fox of the San Antonio Spurs drives to the basket during the game against the New York Knicks on December 31, 2025. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The effort defensively is there at times \u2014 particularly when they face deficits and they\u2019re losing or in crunch time. But it has not been consistent for entire games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re up, we\u2019re like \u2018OK, we\u2019re good.\u2019 And we have three or four just bad defensive plays in a row,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like their execution, and I\u2019m not taking anything away from them, but it\u2019s not like their execution is great or anything. It\u2019s just like \u2018OK, you know what? I\u2019m gonna kind of jog through this action and I\u2019m gonna trail this guy that\u2019s hot.\u2019 And then he catches and shoots a wide-open 3. Or \u2018I\u2019m not gonna pull all the way in and tag the roll guy, I\u2019m just gonna stay right here.\u2019 It\u2019s stuff like that that\u2019s in our control that we don\u2019t control. And we do it for stretches throughout the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Winning can mask problems like this. Recently, the Knicks have found ways to win despite their soft defense.<\/p>\n

\"Spurs<\/p>\n

Spurs center Luke Kornet (7) grabs the rebound against New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. AP<\/p>\n

But, the first two games of the road trip, it came against weak opposition in the Hawks and Pelicans. Against a contender like the Spurs, it\u2019s much harder to overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great when you win and you can still fix things, but a loss really sets you back to reality,\u201d Miles McBride said. \u201cAnd it definitely did for us tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a major theme to Mike Brown\u2019s postgame press conference. He talked about one topic almost exclusively.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,1314,677,327,4076,563,304,4996,3357,2715,1247,6,470,1136,191,3810,3806,969,534,2594,1254],"class_list":{"0":"post-511292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-deaaron-fox","10":"tag-hawks","11":"tag-josh-hart","12":"tag-julian-champagnie","13":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","14":"tag-knicks","15":"tag-luke-kornet","16":"tag-mike-brown","17":"tag-miles-mcbride","18":"tag-mitchell-robinson","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","21":"tag-new-york","22":"tag-new-york-knicks","23":"tag-newyork","24":"tag-newyorkknicks","25":"tag-san-antonio","26":"tag-spurs","27":"tag-the-spurs","28":"tag-tyler-kolek"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115824136494898664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}