The New York Knicks hit a rough stretch during the middle of January, losing four-straight games. While Jalen Brunson did miss time during the stretch, the Knicks are a talented enough roster without him to have won at least one of those contests. Luckily, the losing streak stopped once it reached four.

Since then, the Knicks have turned things around, now on a three-game winning streak after defeating the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night. Not only has the offense improved, but the defense has looked significantly better. Holding two of their past three opponents under 90 points has been due to some changes in philosophy.

Brunson is far from the best defender on the roster, near the bottom in fact, but is still the leader of this team. After their win on Tuesday against the Kings, Brunson was asked about what had changed with the team's defense over the last three games, pointing out two major components.

"Our attention to detail, our focus. Those are big components for us. We have the ability to be a really good team if we do those things," Brunson said.

The Kings might be near the bottom of the league in three-point percentage at 34.9%, but the Knicks were able to hold them to 17% on just 5-of-30 shooting on Tuesday night. While the Knicks did lose the turnover battle, that was more reflective of their lack of ball security on offense compared to their defensive abilities.

The Knicks were always relatively sound defensively under Tom Thibodeau, and Mike Brown still has some work to do with this current Knicks roster. They do boast the ninth-best scoring defense in the NFL, but are in the bottom half of the league in defensive rating.

One reason perhaps for their improvement on the defensive end over the last three games has been the increased involvement of Mitchell Robinson and fewer minutes for Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns might be elite offensively, but his defensive abilities don't compare to the disruption that Robinson brings when out on the floor.

Regardless, the Knicks are starting to trend back toward the top of the conference, but have some ground to make up as they sit a game back of the Boston Celtics for the second seed in the East, and play the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night in a battle for control of the third seed.

Tip-off at Toronto is set for 7:30 p.m. EST, and a win would go a long way for the Knicks' momentum as they face a tough stretch of games before the All-Star break.