Dylan Backer
The New York Knicks scraped and clawed their way to a comeback victory over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday 110-107. However, given who was available for Golden State, a close game feels like a loss.
Knicks barely survive against depleted Warriors team
To make matters worse, New York had to complete their largest comeback of the season down 21 points to barely walk away with a win. The Warriors were down several players, including Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, and Jimmy Butler.
New York came into the game as 14-points favorites, and being that the game was at home, this should’ve been a laugher for them. Head coach Mike Brown clearly felt the same way, as he spent his postgame presser ripping his team for being in the position they were in.
“At this point of the year, it’s good to get a win. But I was not happy the way we started the game,” Brown said, via James L. Edwards III of The Athletic.
Brown added that he is not currently considering making a change to the starting lineup, but it leaving every option on the table as the regular season reaches the finish line.
Slow starts have become a concerning trend of late for this team. They have the third-worst net rating in first quarters over the last six games at -18.0, which is not acceptable at this point in the season with the playoffs roughly one month away.
The Knicks have some work to do
Through this part of the schedule, the games are supposed to come easier for New York, but it has been the opposite. They fell down 18 to the Utah Jazz before coming back to win, and then blew a 17-point lead against a depleted Indiana Pacers squad before scraping out a road win there as well.
Brown has not been pleased with the effort level of his group at the start of games, and is stressing the need to improve on that front. Following the Warriors win, he did not name a Defensive Player of the Game, the first time this season that he did not name one following a win.
“This is a veteran team…I shouldn’t have to call two timeouts in the first six minutes of the ballgame,” Brown said, via Vincent Goodwill of ESPN.
The playoffs are just around the corner, so the Knicks need to clean things up and put together stronger starts. They cannot afford to continue falling behind in games, as they won’t always be as fortunate to come back against better teams.
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