Knicks acknowledge they didn't play their brand of basketball in Game 3
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns reacts against the San Antonio Spurs during the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday at Madison Square Garden. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams
As the Knicks rolled through 13 consecutive postseason victories, they followed each one with an almost robotic speech, insisting that even as they were on the verge of a sweep in the last two rounds, they approached each game as if the series was zero-zero.
But as they mouthed the words, it was hard to believe them, to trust that they really weren’t riding high and facing no panic or pressure. That is, until now.
For the first time in nearly two months the Knicks are taking the floor after a loss, finally getting a test of the resiliency and character that they have leaned on in good times.
“Each game, no matter what the situation is, we’re growing as a team,” Jalen Brunson said. “I think we’re learning and we’re getting better. Obviously, before last night. No matter what the situation is, we’re going to stick together. We’re going to execute, we’re going to be better. That’s just how our mindset has to be going forward.
“You never really know what the situation’s going to be. You never know how the script is going to play out. As long as we have each other’s back and we keep fighting, that’s what we hope for.”
The situation is far different for the Knicks when they take the floor Wednesday night for Game 4 of the NBA Finals, the dreams of a close-out game and another four-game sweep evaporated in what was the Knicks worst performance since the opening round of the playoffs. The offense that had flowed so easily disappeared. The defensive focus that had them the No. 1-ranked defense among playoff teams seemed as if the eyes were on the celebrities in the crowd rather than on Victor Wembanyama gliding untouched behind the defense.
While Mike Brown started his postgame news conference late Monday night complaining about the free-throw discrepancy, but as the players took their turns on the stage, they wanted nothing to do with that excuse. The officials would be reviewed, but the film work the Knicks did after they left the arena was focused solely on their own issues.
“That ain’t cost us the game,” Karl-Anthony Towns said after the game ended. “Turned the ball over. Didn’t execute. Didn’t do what got us 13 straight wins in a row. That’s how you lose a game.
“We didn’t do what we’ve been doing for 13. We decided to do something different, and it ain’t going to work. Throwing the ball away is a clear indication of how you’re going to lose the game, especially in the playoffs.”
The question for the Knicks was whether it was their own doing or if the San Antonio Spurs had found something to negate the Knicks advantages. Towns and Mikal Bridges, who had been huge parts of the offense, were invisible much of the night in Game 3. Bridges didn’t score a point until the clock was ticking down near the end of the third quarter. That was just his second shot of the night and in the fourth quarter he went 0-for-3 while Towns was 0-for-4.
Towns outplayed Wembanyama in the first two games, but in all three games he has yet to score in the fourth quarter.
“I think it’s a combination. We have a game plan, and we want to execute it,” Towns said. “So just trying to execute our game plan, especially when we get in the fourth, is vital, and just doing what I can to execute it at the highest level.
“We’ve got to pick up the ball movement, for sure. We have to. Two, we have, what, 13 games in a row, 50 days of film to show what it looks like when we’re at our best. So we’ve got good film. We’ll get back to our fundamentals, what makes us great, what made us great, and get back to work tomorrow.”
Monday, it felt like some of the old problems surfaced. Brown called the offense stagnant and on that count the players agreed. Brunson led the Knicks with 32 points — 12 in the fourth quarter — but had just five assists while Brown spoke about too much time spent with players watching one person dribble the air out of the ball.
“Well, just telling the guys the truth,” Brown said. “Not just verbally, but doesn’t matter if it’s Jalen, KAT, OG [Anunoby], Mikal, we’ll show them what we feel we need to show them on film. Then we’ll walk through certain things to make sure that the spacing’s right, the timing’s right of our execution.
“Obviously, I’m a firm believer that you can grow and learn a lot in wins, but you can do the same in losses, too. We have a veteran group. Nobody is ‘panicking’ or anything like that. Everybody is disappointed that we didn’t go out and execute and play to what we feel our standard is. That’s not taking anything away from San Antonio, but we feel like we can play a lot better than what we did. We’re looking forward to going out on the floor and showing it.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
