Steve Popper: Knicks' Mike Brown reluctant to change starting five
Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns dunks the ball over the Pacers' Jalen Slawson at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
It was Game Three of the Eastern Conference Finals last season when Tom Thibodeau finally showed desperation, making a change in the starting lineup and inserting Mitchell Robinson in place of Josh Hart.
It took Mike Brown just 15 games this season to abandon that change, bringing Hart back into the starting five, a move he has stuck with this season. It stabilized the team with a consistent group, other than a night like Tuesday when Jalen Brunson was sidelined with some nagging injuries.
While social media may be crammed with second-guessing analysis that borders on begging, Brown has given no indication that he’s going to change. And for all of the things that don’t show up in the boxscore that Hart contributes, on a night the Knicks needed it, Hart showed that he can also provide the offensive boost, scoring a Knicks’ career-high 33 points on 12-for-13 shooting to lead the Knicks to their fourth straight win, 136-110 over the Indiana Pacers.
The Knicks had some of the same early struggles that have hit them with all sort of lineup configurations, a soft defense allowing open and easy shots. But a late first-half run started to separate the Knicks from the severely shorthanded Pacers and in the second half it turned into a runaway.
Brown was asked about the early struggles Sunday with the starting lineup having formed an odd habit of putting the team in an early hole, even (or perhaps especially) against tanking, lottery-bound opponents, and said, “It’s not too late to do anything. And if I feel the need, I will. I’m not thinking that right now. I’m concentrating on each individual because we started different people at different times.”
That has meant Jose Alvarado stepping in the lineup in place of Brunson for his first start as a Knick Tuesday against Indiana, Deuce McBride getting starts earlier this season before his own injury troubles, Landry Shamet plugging numerous holes in the lineup and Robinson getting a handful of starts in place of Karl-Anthony Towns.
But if all are healthy, Brown seems set on sticking with what has brought the team this far.
Like last year, when Hart actually suggested the change to Thibodeau as he was struggling through a finger injury and having just run out of gas after leading the NBA in minutes played per game. The focus is often on Hart since teams have opted to leave him open on the perimeter.
But he has shot 38% from beyond the arc this season before the 5-for-5 effort Tuesday night. And more than his shooting, the hustle, rebounding, and he serves as the primary ball handler to initiate the offense when teams try to get the ball out of Brunson’s hands.
“I think the main thing about is him connecting the group,” Brown said. “I’m not saying he is Andre Iguodala or his game is like Andre Iguodala’s but there are a lot of similarities. When you watch him, you’re like, ‘oh my gosh he’s a great shooter.’ But you’re like he’s pretty good at that, he’s really good in a lot different areas. But more importantly he connects the group and having a guy like that especially to start games is huge.
“With him missing all the preseason and me getting used to how we can play with him, the different ways people guard us with him on the floor took some time but he’s been fantastic giving us that energy, giving us the connectivity we needed with that starting group and then doing the little things.
"Offensive glass, pushing the pace, getting off in transition. He’s a switchable guy, he’s a physical guy and a lot of things that don’t necessarily show up in the stat sheet that he does that help with connectivity as well.”
The latest questions have come regarding Mikal Bridges, who has found himself in a shooting slump, shooting 6-for-29 (20.7%) from beyond the arc in the last seven games entering Tuesday and just 32.8% overall in that span. He started 2-for-10 and 0-for-4 from three on this night before remaining in a one-sided game to try to gain some momentum, hitting a pair of threes to finish with 10 points.
"Mikal’s a pro,” Brown said. “He’s been through this before. And we’ve had other guys go through it this year. He’s going to find his rhythm. Just got to keep trying to embrace doing other things and try to get some easys: try to attack the rim, try to get to the free throw line, try to get out in transition and get offensive rebounds. But it’s the same stuff that I would say and that I have said about other guys trying to find ways to impact the game, which he’s more than capable of doing.”
Bridges rose to a higher level in the postseason last year after enduring a regular season in which he was constantly measured up against the price the Knicks paid to acquire him. This season the calculus has been raised to a higher level with the $150 million contract the Knicks signed him to in an extension.
What Brown is hoping for mostly is simply that the group he has seen together all season will raise their intensity at the start of games and put all of the talk to bed.
“I’ve said it before, our focus, our physicality, our sense of urgency to embrace the details possession after possession, while making our opponents feel us,” he said. “We can’t ease into the game.”
Notes & quotes: Brunson was sidelined with what the team called right ankle injury management and a cervical strain on the right side. … Brown said that McBride has begun taking contact while doing on-court work, another step forward in his return from the sports hernia surgery that has sidelined him since January 27.
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.
