{"id":691701,"date":"2026-04-01T10:53:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/691701\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T10:53:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:53:21","slug":"knicks-crushed-by-rockets-as-struggles-against-winning-teams-continue-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/691701\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks crushed by Rockets as struggles against winning teams continue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Kevin Durant, who scored a game-high 27 points, shoots over Josh Hart during the Knicks’ 111-94 loss to the Rockets on March 31, 2026 in Houston.<\/p>\n

HOUSTON \u2014 It has reached that point in the Knicks season, better late than never.<\/p>\n

After another ugly 111-94 defeat Tuesday night to the Rockets, the next game Wednesday night in Memphis, according to Josh Hart, is a \u201cmust-win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The veteran forward has seen enough and sounded the alarm.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Kevin Durant, who scored a game-high 27 points, shoots over Josh Hart during the Knicks\u2019 111-94 loss to the Rockets on March 31, 2026 in Houston. Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re obviously struggling right now to win games. Struggling to start games off. Struggling to focus on the attention to detail. Struggling to get outside of ourselves and focus on what the betterment of the team is,\u201d Hart said. \u201cSo [Wednesday] we have to play with a sense of desperation. Sense of being willing to sacrifice. To win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, it should be easier to beat the injury-ravaged and tanking Grizzlies. But nothing should be taken for granted these days for the Knicks, not with the way they\u2019ve been playing lately.<\/p>\n

They arrived in Houston on Tuesday with something to prove. Then they proved nothing. Just more of the same. Worse, actually.<\/p>\n

Coach Mike Brown\u2019s squad has now gone 25 days without beating a team with a winning record, continuing that streak with the loss to the Rockets.<\/p>\n

They again looked flustered offensively and a step slow defensively. They\u2019re certainly not carrying the look of a title contender.<\/p>\n

And now they are looking at the Grizzlies game as an important building block.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going in the right direction,\u201d Hart said. \u201cWe\u2019re not trending upwards. So we got to figure it out. Three tough [losses in a row]. Got another one tomorrow. That\u2019s a must-win for us. And build from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson was woeful while flustered by Houston\u2019s swarming defense, managing just 12 points on 5-for-14 shooting with three turnovers. Karl-Anthony Towns was better but not by much, shooting 7-for-17 for 22 points.<\/p>\n

\"Jalen<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson, who was held to 12 points, makes a pass as Amen Thompson defends. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Overall, the Knicks shot just 10-for-34 from 3-point range \u2014 bricking several wide-open looks, most commonly from Hart and Miles McBride.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Rockets (46-29) carved up New York\u2019s defense with precision, getting 27 points from old man Kevin Durant while shooting 54 percent overall and 43 percent from deep.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did whatever they wanted,\u201d Brunson said.<\/p>\n

The Knicks (48-28) were never in the fight. They lost every statistical battle \u2014 points, rebounds, turnovers, assists. They trailed for the final 47 minutes and by 20 points heading into the fourth quarter. They have dropped three straight overall and five consecutive against winning teams.<\/p>\n

\"Karl-Anthony<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 22 points, drives on Alperen Sengun. Getty Images<\/p>\n

In the big picture, New York is still third in the East but dangerously close to falling into fourth, leaving Toyota Center just a half-game above the Cavaliers \u2014 who played a late game Tuesday night against the Lakers. It\u2019s getting precarious with the playoffs creeping closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of being veterans or not, we got to turn the page and do something about it,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how long you\u2019ve been in the league or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks should still beat the Grizzlies (25-50), even in a back-to-back, but don\u2019t stand a chance in the playoffs if they\u2019re playing like they did last week. Some of the Rockets debacle was predictable. Coach Brown\u2019s team has had problems dealing with long and athletic defenses. It stalls Brunson\u2019s offense, and that happened again Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The start was a disaster class for the Knicks.<\/p>\n

They trailed 12-1 after three minutes, then 22-5 after five minutes. They were wilting under Houston\u2019s intense defense, failing to generate good opportunities while missing six of their first seven 3-point attempts.<\/p>\n

On the other end, the Knicks were slow to rotate and allowed Durant open jumpers \u2014 about as efficient an attempt as it gets in the NBA. Brown burned two timeouts in the opening seven minutes. They trailed the Rockets 37-21 after the first quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo start the game, we were poor defensively,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t feel us at all, especially in the pick-and-roll game. Against KD, we went under two to three times early. He\u2019s hot, we\u2019re not supposed to go under, and he knocked down shots. We didn\u2019t make shots going the other way. That\u2019s what it comes down to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks settled down a little bit to start the second quarter and cut the deficit to four, largely because of Jose Alvarado\u2019s injection of energy and shotmaking. But the recovery was short-lived.<\/p>\n

The Knicks were soon down by 19 and went into the break with a 63-50 deficit. It was over, and the conclusion was deflating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant, who scored a game-high 27 points, shoots over Josh Hart during the Knicks’ 111-94 loss to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[1307,883,7,292,194,4066,288,11053,327,563,938,304,300,293,2715,6,211,1101],"class_list":{"0":"post-691701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-rockets","13":"tag-houstonrockets","14":"tag-jalen-brunson","15":"tag-jose-alvarado","16":"tag-josh-hart","17":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","18":"tag-kevin-durant","19":"tag-knicks","20":"tag-lakers","21":"tag-memphis","22":"tag-miles-mcbride","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-rockets","25":"tag-the-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116329085167220433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691701","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=691701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}