HOUSTON \u2014 On the heels of their third straight defeat, Knicks forward Josh Hart raised concerns about where the team is at with six games remaining in the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think we\u2019re not going in the right direction,\u201d Hart said after the Knicks fell to the Houston Rockets, 111-94. \u201cWe\u2019re not trending upwards. We have to figure it out. Three tough ones. We have another one tomorrow, and that\u2019s a must-win game for us. Then we\u2019ll go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The loss to Houston wasn\u2019t just New York\u2019s third straight defeat. It was its fifth consecutive loss to a team with winning a record, and its largest defeat since a 118-80 loss to the East-leading Detroit Pistons in February. The Knicks haven\u2019t beaten a team over .500 since March 6, when they punished the Denver Nuggets from start to finish. New York did have a seven-game win streak recently, but all of the games were either against opponents barely in the Play-In picture or comfortably outside of it.<\/p>\n
Some of the issues that the Knicks have faced all season presented themselves Tuesday night. They\u2019ve suffered many poor starts, and the Knicks found themselves down 27-10 halfway through the first quarter in Houston.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago, head coach Mike Brown threatened to change the starting lineup if he deemed it necessary, but wasn\u2019t ready to do so at that point in time. After the loss to the Rockets, Brown once again harped on his team\u2019s inability to begin games on the right foot.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we got down big to start the game,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI sound like a broken record, but when you get down like that against a good team, it\u2019s going to be hard to come back from. They\u2019re feeling good about themselves and it makes it harder as the game\u2019s along, and makes it an uphill battle because you have to play fast and look to attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knicks have also struggled with consistent physicality on the defensive end to start games, and that was the case again versus Houston. New York showed the ability to do it against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday before the defending champions pulled away at the end. However, it disappeared Tuesday, continuing an up-and-down trend that has been present all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m frustrated with that part,\u201d Brown said when asked about getting a consistent defensive effort every night. \u201cI thought we made strides against Oklahoma City. Got to give our guys credit. We came out and they felt us. Tonight, everything was just real easy for (Houston), especially in the pick-and-roll. They didn\u2019t feel us at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the game, there was a lot of talk by Brown and players about the team not being in sync on the defensive end. With the Knicks down 20 late in the game, Brown had his starters out on the floor for what he said was an opportunity \u201cto see if we can defend a little better, have five guys on a string. And then offensively, see if we can keep moving the ball and attack the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both have been regular issues throughout this team\u2019s season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were mental lapses and things that shouldn\u2019t be happening in Game 75 or 76, whatever this is,\u201d Jalen Brunson said. \u201cWe have a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York came into this season as a popular pick to win the East. The Boston Celtics started the year without Jayson Tatum and were unsure if he\u2019d come back. The Indiana Pacers were down Tyrese Haliburton. The public\u2019s belief in the Cleveland Cavaliers diminished after another disappointing postseason a year ago.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Knicks are the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference with six games remaining. Cleveland, the No. 4 seed, is right on New York\u2019s heels.<\/p>\n
Shortly after his team won the NBA Cup back in December, Knicks owner James Dolan said during a New York radio interview with WFAN that getting to the Finals is something \u201cwe absolutely have to do,\u201d and that winning the championship is something \u201cwe should do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knicks are tied for the 10th-best win percentage in the NBA since those comments.<\/p>\n
New York made the Eastern Conference Finals last season and lost in six games to the Pacers. Tom Thibodeau was fired as coach shortly after, as the organization felt it needed to move on to reach its goals of winning a championship.<\/p>\n
The Knicks still have their objective in front of them, but it\u2019s getting harder and harder to believe they can reach it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 On the heels of their third straight defeat, Knicks forward Josh Hart raised concerns about where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,1104,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-183234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-knicks","10":"tag-ny","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-nyc-headlines","13":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}