Knicks Searching for Answers as Skid Continues: Brunson Calls for Urgency, Effort, and Accountability
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. - The New York Knicks are in the thick of a rough patch, and Jalen Brunson isn’t sugarcoating it. After dropping nine of their last eleven games, including a tough loss to the Mavericks on Monday night, the Knicks' captain is calling for a reset - not in personnel, but in mindset.
“You’re going to have ups and downs,” Brunson said Tuesday after practice. “We’re not managing our downs the way we need to right now.”
That’s putting it mildly. Since lifting the NBA Cup in Las Vegas back in mid-December, the Knicks have gone 7-11.
That’s the same roster that made a deep playoff run last year and just a few weeks ago looked like one of the most cohesive units in the league. But lately, the chemistry’s been off, the energy inconsistent, and the results reflect it.
Brunson, never one to hide from accountability, isn’t just talking about the losses. He’s talking about how they’re losing - and that’s what’s bothering him most.
“I can live with us playing hard and coming down to the wire,” he said. “We’re not even doing that right now. We just gotta get back to what we do.”
The schedule hasn’t been kind. Since winning the NBA Cup, the Knicks have played 10 of their last 18 games on the road, with a relentless every-other-day grind, including back-to-backs and minimal rest.
But Brunson isn’t using that as an excuse. He acknowledged the shift in intensity - from the playoff-like atmosphere of the Cup to the grind of the regular season - might have thrown them off rhythm.
Still, he was quick to add: that’s something they should be able to handle.
“It’s still basketball. It’s still our job,” Brunson said.
“Regardless of the situation, regardless of the stakes - we have to bring great energy. That could be a part of it, sure, but we’re better than that.”
This isn’t the first time Brunson has drawn a line in the sand. Since head coach Brown took over, Brunson has made it clear: buy in, or fall behind.
After Monday’s loss, he doubled down - the turnaround will come if the team cares enough to make it happen. When asked Tuesday if he’s worried they don’t care enough, Brunson didn’t hesitate.
“No,” he said. “We just have to care about what we’re doing. We just need a little more from us.”
That “little more” starts with effort. Then comes defense. And if you listen closely, you can hear the echoes of a coach’s son - because that’s exactly what Brunson is.
“We have to be a team that, when our shot’s not falling, we’re making up for it with the little things,” he said. “Rotations, defensive effort, all the little things.
I’ve been stressing this since college. When the offense isn’t there, we have to rely on defense.”
That’s been a noticeable drop-off. Last year’s Knicks were scrappy and resilient - the kind of team that could grind out wins even when the shooting went cold.
This year, that grit has been harder to find. Brunson connected the dots between effort and execution, especially when it comes to closing out tight games.
“It’s our mindset,” he said. “We can’t focus on what we can’t control.
We can control effort. We can control how we play defensively.
That doesn’t take as much skill - it just takes connection.”
That connection will be tested again Wednesday night when the Knicks host the struggling Brooklyn Nets. On paper, it’s a chance to stop the bleeding. But Brunson and the Knicks know it’s not about the opponent - it’s about the process.
Head coach Brown echoed that sentiment after Tuesday’s practice. He pointed to the team’s first game after the NBA Cup - a narrow win powered by Brunson’s late-game heroics - as the moment when things started to unravel.
The results weren’t the issue at first. It was the way they were playing.
Now, with the trade deadline just two weeks away, the clock is ticking. The Knicks insist they know how to fix this.
They say they want to. But words only go so far.
They’ve got a chance to prove it. And if they’re really the group to finish what they started, that proof needs to show up - not just on the scoreboard, but in the way they play.