Dylan Backer
The New York Knicks have won five consecutive games, but all five have been not so aesthetically pleasing against bad teams. Friday’s nail-biting one-point victory over the 17-win Brooklyn Nets should be an eye opener to an alarming trend.
Knicks barely beat tanking Nets
New York once again started a game very slow. They trailed by eight after the first quarter, a period in which the Knicks scored only 14 points. In the Nets’ previous game, they scored just 24 points in the entire first half against the Oklahoma City Thunder, so they came out with tougher physicality against New York.
The Knicks’ start to the game was a continuation of an alarming trend of them falling behind early to a lesser opponent. The frequency of such incidences at a time in which the playoffs are right around the corner is not ideal, and the last thing they want is for bad habits to stick in the playoffs.
Mitchell Robinson was among those not pleased with how the Knicks have looked on the court recently. Despite the recent winning streak, he knows that the process on the court needs to be better.
“We can’t just look at their record and just say, ‘Alright, we’re gonna whip their ass.’ We’ve just gotta be better all together, and until we figure that part out, it’s gonna be a long road,” Robinson said, via Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News.
The Knicks have adjustments that need to be made
The Knicks will gladly take each of these wins, especially as they fight for a high seed in the playoffs. However, good teams will not let them get away with slow starts, and the way in which they find themselves trailing is largely due to a lack of focus.
If they play with the same intensity for all 48 minutes, the ceiling is astronomical for them. At their best, they are as good as any other team in the league, but the reality is that right now, complacency is running rampant through this team, and the habit of starting games off slow needs to be broken before the playoffs.
The Knicks have two games against the Wizards and Pelicans coming up, but then the schedule gets a little tougher the rest of the way. They have 11 games remaining and are 5.5 games out of the first seed and 1.5 out of the second seed.
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