Since the All-Star break, the Knicks’ starting five has been outscored by a combined 34 points in the first quarter.
On Sunday, after his Knicks were outscored by six against a Warriors team missing eight rotation players, Mike Brown had seen enough.
"We have to figure out individually, collectively, how we can start games better…. I’m not talking about the outcome, win or loss, I’m talking about the start of the game,” Brown said after the Knicks walked off the floor with an ugly three-point win over Golden State. “(We need to start games) with a level of focus, a level of physicality, so that they’re feeling us to start the game.
"This group knows it. They understand it. Now we've just gotta go do it."
Is Brown going to change the starting five of Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Karl-AnthonyTowns?
Not yet.
"If I feel the need, I will. I’m not thinking that right now,” Brown said. “I’m not concentrating on each individual (in the starting lineup) because….we’ve started different people (in recent games)... So it’s collectively (been a problem) in the last seven, eight games.”
The Knicks started Brunson-Bridges-Hart-Aunonoby-Towns for most of last season. The unit helped the Knicks win 50-plus games but had issues offensively in the final 3.5 months of the regular season. Those issues were exposed at points during the postseason. Eventually, Tom Thibodeau changed the starting lineup. That change – which came midway through the Eastern Conference Finals – was ultimately too late.
Will Brown stick with this starting five for as long as Thibodeau did? He’s not changing anything now, but Brown certainly sounded like a coach ready to shake things up.
“Right now I don’t feel the need to,” said Brown. “But, like I said, if I felt the need to, I would.”
Brown has been willing to change his closing lineup throughout the season. On Sunday, he again went away from Bridges in the closing minutes of a close game.
Bridges finished the game with seven points in 21 minutes. He missed five of his six three-point attempts.
Afterward, Brown praised Bridges’ overall impact on the club.
“It’s no secret Mikal has not shot the ball well. But he’s given us life at times, and he’s given us life at the right time at times,” the head coach said. “I thought he was fantastic in Indiana (on Friday). On both ends of the floor. So it’s not just Mikal. It’s us collectively as a group.”
Once again, Brown turned to Jordan Clarkson to spark his sleepy team. And Clarkson delivered again.
He finished with 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting in 21 minutes. New York outscored Golden State by 14 with Clarkson on the floor.
“Special. The stats don’t lie,” Towns said of Clarkson. “One of the best players coming off the bench in NBA history. He does one thing better than almost anybody in the league, and that’s put the ball in the basket. When he’s doing that, he’s playing with that fire and that passion he has; there’s not many players in the NBA coming off the bench you feel better about.”
You wonder if, at some point, Brown decides to insert Clarkson more into the rotation.
Clarkson was averaging just 2.4 minutes per game after the All-Star break until Brown called his number. Over the last three games, Clarkson has scored 49 points on 19-for-35 shooting.
Shorter season?
Steve Kerr wants NBA stakeholders to have a "meaningful discussion" about changing the length of the regular season.
“I’m just saying what I see with all the injuries. The soft tissue injuries. I see all the data about how fast the guys are running, how much distance guys are covering now compared to 20-30 years ago. I see all the injuries, the tanking. I see everything,” Kerr said before the Knicks-Warriors game on Sunday. “I’ve been in the league a long time. I’m well aware fewer games would mean less revenue, which means everybody takes a pay cut, and I’m willing to stick my neck out and say I’m all for that because I think the quality of the product is the most important thing. So I don’t say these things flippantly. I say these things because I mean them.
“I think there’s a meaningful discussion to be had, and I love the league, I’ve loved the NBA my whole life. My whole adult life has been spent in the NBA in some form and it’s an amazing league. We have incredible people in this league and great fans. I just want to make sure we give our fans the very, very best product we can and try to satisfy all of our corporate partners, and I just think there’s probably a way to do that without just completely — I don’t know, ignoring some of the obvious issues we’ve established.”
Earlier this month, Kerr suggested that the NBA shorten its season by 10 games. As stated above, Kerr is well aware of the revenue loss that comes with a shortened season. But he believes something needs to change.
“In talking to performance people, looking at the data, hearing the experts in our own group talk about the load that these guys are facing and then you get older players like Steph (Curry) or Al (Horford) or Jimmy (Butler) – we have to manage them through 82 (games). So there are nights where you just have to say, can’t play this guy. I get emails all the time from fans saying ‘I spent $2,000 on tickets to go to this game and Steph didn’t play.’ And it wasn’t an injury designation and I held him out. Shouldn’t we reconcile that somehow?
“Maybe it’s stretching the season out a little bit. If you can’t give up 10 games, can you extend the season by two weeks and give players more time in between games? I don’t know,” Kerr said. “I know there’s no guarantee that players are going to be out there every night, but I know that we have enough issues all clumped together that if we put our heads together – we’ve got a lot of really smart people in this league. I think we can address a lot of them and satisfy the fans, the owners, the TV partners. I believe that’s possible. Maybe I’m naïve. But I think it’s important to put it out there just for discussion and see where it goes.”
For his part, the Knicks’ Hart seemed lukewarm to the idea of changing the schedule.
“I probably be retired before that happens. So I don’t care,” Hart said. “Nah, do I think it will be probably be better for the game and the quality on the court? I think so.
“Do I think it will happen? Probably not because everybody is so money-hungry and money-driven. I think everybody puts that above everything else.”
