Following their Dec. 29 win against the New Orleans Pelicans, the Knicks improved to 23-9 and looked like one of the few, true contenders in the wide open Eastern Conference.
But since then, New York has lost eight out of their last 10 games and are now 25-17. They are just a half game up on the Toronto Raptors (25-18) for the No. 3 seed in the East and only two games up on the seventh-seeded Philadelphia 76ers (22-18), who would land in the NBA Play-In Tournament if the regular season ended today.
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It’s been a very frustrating stretch for the Knicks, something star Karl-Anthony Towns was asked about after the team’s 106-99 loss to Suns on Saturday night.
“A lot, a lot of frustration,” Towns said. “That’s all I got.”
The big man went on to discuss his level of concern for the team after their third straight loss as they look to right the ship.
“I don’t like losing any games, so of course for me, the concern is winning the next one,” Towns said. “Just staying focused on the task at hand, winning games, and giving our fans something to cheer for.”
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Head coach Mike Brown also talked about the level of concern amid New York’s recent skid, but downplayed the urgency, saying the team needs to “keep trying to fight.”
“You don’t want to lose games at all, but especially going 2-8 in the last 10. There’s concern there, but not to the point to where we’re going to overhaul everything,” Brown said.
“We got to work. We got to look in the mirror and see how we can individually help the group, starting with me. And then we got to get in the gym, we got to work as much as we can. We got to keep trying to fight like we did tonight, and if we do, we’re going to give ourselves a chance.”
It’s clear there is plenty of room for the Knicks to improve, whether that be on defense (bottom five in defensive rating since Dec. 1 and 19th overall in the NBA this season at 116.1) or finding consistency in their three-point shooting (35.1 percent over last 10 games, 15th in the NBA, per StatMuse).
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“I think everything,” OG Anunoby said when asked what the team can improve on. “You can always get better at everything. Even if we were winning games, we would still be trying to improve everything.”
Luckily, with the Knicks needing to get back on track fast, their schedule gets a bit easier over the next week. They’ll face the Dallas Mavericks on Monday and the Nets on Wednesday before a matchup with the feisty Sixers next Saturday.
