The Knicks’ early-season wobble is starting to look like a short-lived detour. After dropping their first three games, New York has won six of its last seven, and the last two have looked exactly like the kind of nights good teams are supposed to have: no drama, no slipping up, no letting inferior opponents hang around.
That has come against a stretch of soft competition. Four of the Knicks’ last six games have been against teams that currently have a combined four wins: the Chicago Bulls twice, the Brooklyn Nets, and the Milwaukee Bucks. Those three clubs sit with the three worst records in the Eastern Conference, and the Nets are the only one with more than one win, sitting at two.
The latest example came Tuesday, when New York visited the 1-10 Bucks and never gave Milwaukee a real opening in a 117-85 blowout. The Knicks first moved in front by double figures with 8:43 left in the second quarter and never gave that cushion back. They did it without Josh Hart, and while Milwaukee caught fire from 3-point range in the third quarter and scored 38 points, the Bucks managed only 47 points across the other 36 minutes.
Before that, the Knicks handled the Bulls on November 4 in a 135-105 win that was already out of hand early. New York led by 22 after the first quarter and kept pouring it on.
That was a much cleaner result than the first time these teams met. In Chicago on October 28, the Knicks had to erase a 19-point hole to escape with a six-point win. Their November 2 game against the Nets was another grind, with New York trailing by four after three quarters before flipping it in the fourth.
Last season, this was part of the Knicks’ identity. They rolled through plenty of weaker teams on the way to ending a 53-year championship drought.
The list of lopsided wins was long: the Nets by 36 and 54, with that 54-point rout standing as the largest margin of victory in franchise history; the Utah Jazz by 34; the Washington Wizards by 31 and 32; the Bulls by 40. The Tyrese Haliburton-less Indiana Pacers usually pushed them, except in the final meeting, when New York won by 26.
That’s the common thread here. The Knicks are starting to look like the team they were last season, the one that didn’t waste time against lesser opponents and made those games look routine.
In Other News...
Knicks Backcourt Suddenly Has Another Young Guard Worth Watching
A former lottery pick is on the verge of landing in the Knicks orbit, giving Westchester another young guard worth tracking this winter. Rob Dillingham, who was waived by the Hornets in September, is expected to sign with the Westchester Knicks once the waivers process is complete, adding a player with real pedigree to the organizations developmental pipeline.
Dillingham entered the league as the No. 8 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft and has already bounced through stops with the Timberwolves and Bulls in his first two NBA seasons. He has shown flashes along the way, but he still has not carved out a steady home on an NBA roster, which makes this next step a chance to reset his stock while giving the Knicks a closer look at a guard who still has plenty of upside. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks May Need A Real Tyler Kolek Rotation Test Soon
Tyler Kolek has quietly started to carve out a real role for the Knicks in recent games, and the minutes have been more than just late-game housekeeping. He got a run against Milwaukee before the outcome was settled, then followed it up with a 10-minute stint against the Bulls in which he handed out five assists without a turnover, the kind of clean, composed stretch that can catch a coaching staffs attention.
What comes next is the more interesting question for New York. The Knicks may want to see Kolek alongside a starter soon, especially with Cleveland on the schedule, to get a better read on whether he can organize the offense against a higher-level opponent and not just in spot duty. It is still a speculative idea, but it feels like the sort of test that could tell the Knicks a lot about how much trust they can place in him moving forward. [Read more 🡒]
Mike Brown Sounds Off After Knicks Loss Raises Brunson Concern
The Knicks loss to Cleveland came with a familiar kind of frustration, the sort that lingers long after the final buzzer because it leaves you wondering what might have been different. Jalen Brunson still led New York with 27 points in 35 minutes, but the lack of trips to the line stood out in a game the Knicks dropped by eight, especially with the Cavaliers finishing with 14 more free-throw attempts.
Mike Brown did not hide his irritation afterward, pointing to the officiating and the disparity at the stripe as a major issue. For a Knicks team trying to keep pace in a tight stretch, the concern is not just the result itself but whether Brunsons night without a free-throw attempt becomes part of a bigger pattern worth watching. [Read more 🡒]