The Knicks lost for the fourth straight time on Monday night, but the 114-97 rout to the short-handed Dallas Mavericks was the worst of them all.
The loss, which was essentially decided at halftime with New York down 75-47, led to an exasperated crowd at Madison Square Garden to rain down boos from the rafters to show their frustration with the team.
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Jalen Brunson, who did not shoot the ball well (9-for-24), was asked after the game what went wrong in the team’s latest fiasco and a clearly frustrated Brunson was up front about the team’s struggles.
«We just didn’t follow the game plan at all,» he said. «… As a team we know what we have to do. It’s either we do it, we care enough to do it or we don’t.»
While Brunson mentioned that it’s a «long season», he also emphasized the importance of fixing the issues that have been plaguing New York as soon as possible.
«We gotta figure this out fast,» he said, while also acknowledging that he has all the confidence in the guys in the locker room to do so.
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As for the boos that have made their way to MSG after such a special start to the season, Brunson did not hold back.
«I’d be booing us too,» he said. «Straight up.»
Head coach Mike Brown also weighed in on the jeering from the fans and agreed with Brunson’s point of view.
«I’m okay with the boos,» he said. «If we’re playing crappy, boo. If I was in the stands, I’d probably boo too. You pay hard money to come to the game.»
Following the loss, the Knicks are now 25-18 (third place in the East) and 2-8 in their last 10 games. They still sport an impressive 16-6 record at home, second-best to the Detroit Pistons in the conference, but have lost three of their last four at MSG with Monday’s loss not even close.
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«I’d be disappointed too,» said Karl-Anthony Towns. «Fans spend their hard-earned money, they give us so much love and motivation to go out there and they expect the results and so do we. Fans are doing their part, we gotta do our part.»
Part of doing their part involves tightening up on defense. On Monday, New York let the Mavs shoot 48 percent from the floor and 47 percent from deep. Those numbers were even worse in the first half after the Knicks gave up 75 first-half points.
In fact, the Knicks have only kept their opponents to under 100 points three times this season and none since Nov. 30 which spans 25 games.
«We all need to do some soul-searching, some looking in the mirror,» said Josh Hart. «Right now we’re playing embarrassing basketball. We’re not executing on the offensive end. Defensively, we’ve been abysmal. We’ve been terrible defensively all year.»
