The New York Knicks have won five straight after taking down the Portland Trail Blazers Friday night 127-97 and now it seems like the skid the team went on after winning the NBA Cup is a distant memory.

But for the Knicks, the pain of those losses are still fresh in their minds and the things they did or didn't do to let those losses pile up are something they've made a conscious effort to improve on so they don't suffer a skid like that again. 

The biggest issue that the Knicks faced during those losses was a lack of defense. It was something that head coach Mike Brown brought up often as a major problem for the team to address. He was even seemingly baffled at times that game plans they went over ahead of matchups went out the window by tip-off.

Now, the defense has vastly improved, evidenced by the fact that the Knicks allowed the Trail Blazers to put up just 97 points Friday. 

"That's something that we've been struggling at during that skid, so I think everyone's taken that step and that challenge to play better defense," Josh Hart said (via SNY Knicks). 

Karl-Anthony Towns was and still is the defensive leader of the team and after back-to-back 20+ rebound performances, his defensive presence is felt both on the court and in the stat sheet. 

But, now it's not just Towns shutting down opposing offenses. Jalen Brunson has made major strides defensively when facing off against guards on the other team and Hart, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby have all made strides as well. 

Maintaining that defensive upgrade will be both the most difficult and most crucial task for the Knicks in order to keep up the consistent winning that they've enjoyed over the last five games. 

New York has no lack of scoring talent, so their defense stands out even more as something that needs improving and on the inevitable nights that the scoring doesn't come through, that defense will be more important than ever. 

There's still a lot of games left in the season and even though the Knicks look comfortable for the playoffs with a 30-18 record and current second-seed in the Eastern Conference, when playoffs come around that defense will be tested and any remaining holes in their game will be punched through by opposing offenses. 

It's for that reason that their defensive changes are so encouraging and by the looks of the way they've been playing lately, the flaws of their recent skid do look long gone.