The pendulum swings back and forth, as the Knicks have now won four games in a row after a brutal start to the new year.
The team’s post-Thibodeau hangover looked real, as Mike Brown hung his hat on the offensive side of things. The strategy worked - until it didn’t. After another brutal loss at home to the Dallas Mavericks, Captain Brunson called a players-only meeting.
This was the state of affairs just 10 days ago. Bleak.
Since then, the tide has truly turned. New York has rattled off four straight, and encouragingly, it’s been New York’s _defense_ leading the charge. The team has held their last four opponents to 66, 109, 87, and 92 points, respectively.
Yes, it’s a small sample size, and yes, the four games weren’t against championship contenders, but the Knicks hadn’t shown the ability to win games this way until now. Defense had been the biggest issue so far this season, but a new identity could be taking shape. They’ve been killing it on the glass. They’ve shown toughness on both sides of the floor. It feels like a relic of seasons prior.
What’s changed? Well, it’s no coincidence that Landry Shamet replacing Jordan Clarkson in the rotation has led to tangible change in the bench unit. Similarly, KAT has been averaging less than 25 minutes a contest across these last four games. And OG Anunoby has been locked back in, averaging three stocks per game across the same stretch.
It’s trade deadline season, and if the new year slide continued, we’d be having much different conversations right now. Yet as a whole, the Knicks’ mindset seems to have shifted. This has been a uniform shift from the bottom to the top, with both players and coaches changing their approach to gameday.
With the Blazers on tap tonight at home, New York is in a good position to stretch their streak to five as they battle for the two seed in the East. Let’s see if they can keep the good vibes going tonight.
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