Wednesday night\u2019s mollywhopping of the Nets notwithstanding, the Knicks have been in a freefall since New Year\u2019s Eve, losing nine of 11 games before destroying their crosstown rivals. Six of those losses have been by double digits, casting serious doubt on the idea of this being a serious championship contender.<\/p>\n
Maybe crushing the Nets means that the Knicks have found their groove again, or maybe it\u2019s a temporary distraction from the fact that something is seriously wrong. There are definitely reasons for concern, from their drop in defensive efficiency compared to last year, to the step back that Karl-Anthony Towns has taken.<\/p>\n
As a legendary Celtic, Paul Pierce has had a vested interest in being a Knicks hater for many years. Even in his post-playing days, he\u2019s continued in that spirit, famously betting on the Knicks to lose to the Celtics in last year\u2019s playoffs, then having to walk to work<\/a> in his robe to pay up that bet.<\/p>\n Undeterred by that loss, Pierce correctly picked the Pacers to beat the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, and he\u2019s doubled down on that hate this year after the Knicks won the NBA Cup by saying that they\u2019d never win a real championship in his lifetime. Knicks fans won\u2019t like to hear it, but he\u2019s looked smart as they\u2019ve fallen apart in recent weeks.<\/p>\n On the most recent episode of\u00a0KG Certified, Pierce claimed he saw this collapse coming.\u00a0\u201cI told you it looked like a disconnect,\u201d he said<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cI saw it early. I saw it. I don\u2019t really see them dapping up each other. It\u2019s pouting going on out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Pierce is pinning the Knicks\u2019 woes on team chemistry. Once one of their strong points thanks to the Villanova core they had assembled, it\u2019s difficult to argue with Pierce\u2019s assessment now. The vibes are so bad that Jalen Brunson said, \u201cWe a**\u201d<\/a> about the way the team was playing two weeks ago, and things have only gotten worse since.<\/p>\n The transition from Tom Thibodeau to Mike Brown is at least partially to blame, Pierce said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get a new coach and you gotta go through a whole \u2018nother system and you\u2019re used to doing things a certain way,\u201d\u00a0he explained, citing his own experience with Doc Rivers.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause I remember that with me and Doc. I was used to doing things a certain way. He come in, then he wants me to do this and do this and that. We over here, we bumping heads. That\u2019s what it look like over there,\u201d\u00a0the former NBA champion recalled.<\/p>\n The difference, he said, is that those Celtics teams had much lower expectations before they brought in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.\u00a0\u201cWe was losing and we wasn\u2019t even in the playoffs,\u201d he said. \u201cAt least they a playoff team and they\u2019re predicted to go to the Finals, or at least be in the conference finals, so that ain\u2019t cool right there. It ain\u2019t supposed to look like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Those Celtics did eventually turn it around, but notably, it took time, and some major roster moves. Will the Knicks need the same thing to get back on track?<\/p>\n The trade deadline is less than two weeks away, and with a lot of buzz around KAT being available<\/a>, and the ongoing saga over whether Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> will request a trade or not, a lot can happen between then and now to change the Knicks\u2019 fortunes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wednesday night\u2019s mollywhopping of the Nets notwithstanding, the Knicks have been in a freefall since New Year\u2019s Eve,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,3357,6,1136,191,3810,3806,2078],"class_list":{"0":"post-556041","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-knicks","10":"tag-mike-brown","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks","16":"tag-paul-pierce"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115945931036938553","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556041","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=556041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}