Knicks' Mike Brown era starts off on the right foot with complete win over Cavaliers in season opener
Knicks head coach Mike Brown reacts in the first half of an NBA game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It is hard not to like Mike Brown, or at least like talking to Mike Brown.
The Knicks’ new coach has an unbridled passion for his job and an unwavering belief in his high-octane offense. This was on full display just two days before the Knicks’ season opener when a reporter asked a fairly technical question about why Jalen Brunson pitches the ball to Deuce McBride in a particular situation.
It is the type of question that would have made Brown’s predecessor, Tom Thibodeau, roll his eyes and issue a short, fairly dismissive response. Instead, Brown leapt from his chair and launched into a five-minute explanation that involved him physically moving around the news conference room as if he were actually out on the court teaching NBA players instead of a bunch of sportswriters.
Wednesday night, the Knicks opened the season with the kind of win that goes a long way in explaining why their new coach has such an evangelistic zeal for his fast-paced offense.
The Knicks came away with a 119-111 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team most likely to stand in their way of getting to the NBA Finals. What’s more they did it in a fashion so complete, so different from what fans are used to seeing from this group of players that it may have converted some of the biggest critics of their recent coaching change.
No, this was not your Tom Thibodeau Knicks. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
Not only did Brown play 11 players, he did it in the first 13 minutes of the game. Ten of those players played at least 12 minutes. And this was on a night when the Knicks were missing two of their regular rotation players in Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson.
Brown utilized diverse weapons offensively, a significant change from last year’s isolation-heavy offense that centered around Brunson. Brown took turns having different players bring up the ball and frequently staggered Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns’ minutes.
“I truly believe this team is a deep team,” Brown said after the game. “It’s my job to keep trying to find combinations out on the floor that work. I’m still learning them. I have to learn on the fly because we have guys who can play.”
Guys who can play on both sides of the ball. It may have been on defense where the Knicks were the biggest surprise as the Knicks picked up their defense at 94 feet, putting constant pressure on the Cavaliers’ players. They sent a message with their defense in the first quarter when the held Cleveland, a team that averaged 30.4 points per quarter last season, to just 23 points.
“I think it sets the tone,” Brunson said of the defense. “You see a teammate doing that. It kind of gives everyone juice. It feeds off the energy.”
In some ways, it was a mini-statement game for a coach who opened the season under almost unimaginable pressure. Brown was brought here to get his team to the NBA Finals. This year. Anything short of doing so will be considered a failure. The East has rarely been this wide open with Boston and Indiana having lost their best players to injuries and Detroit and Orlando not quite ready to be labeled a championship contender.
All this leaves the Cavaliers as their biggest roadblock. Cleveland won 64 games last season, including all four against the Knicks. The Knicks dodged a bullet in the postseason when the Cavaliers collapsed in the second round, but there is no reason to believe they will be that lucky this year.
Yet, the Cavaliers weren’t Brown’s only opponent Wednesday as it seemed going in that not everyone on the team was ready to buy into a new, faster style of play. Towns made that clear two days earlier with his “I don’t know comment” to reporters when asked how he fit in Brown’s system.
Towns had one of the best years of his career last season under Thibodeau, averaging 24.4 points. On Wednesday, he scored 19 and grabbed 11 rebounds, and managed to say all the right things after the game.
“We got a lot of guys who have proven themselves in practice,” Towns said when asked about the team depth. “ . . . . We have a great system here for next man up.”
That has to be music to Brown’s ears. Because it doesn’t matter how innovative your offense is if you can’t get your best players to buy into it. With the win Wednesday against a talented opponent, the team took a step forward. But Brown still thinks they have a ways to go.
Said Brown: “Our expectations are extremely high but we are not going to get ahead of ourselves. Whether we win or lose, it’s one game. We won the game and we had some great moments, but we don’t think we are anywhere near what we are capable of.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
