The New York Knicks fell to 2-4 on the season after losing to the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday in their first game of the NBA Cup tournament.

The Knicks have now lost two games to the Sixers after falling on opening night to the team that was pegged as being the biggest threat to them in the Eastern Conference.

After the game, Knicks forward Josh Hart admitted that the flow is tougher this year and that the ball has been stagnant, believing it to be a little bit due to fatigue.

"Mentally, you know what to do, but you’re trying to get your body to that point,” he said. "We all feel the fatigue. We have to fight through it. It’s six games in. We have to try and find a way to get our bodies ready to play every day. Mentally, we’re there. We just have to find it physically.”

Jalen Brunson joked that Josh blamed fatigue because he’s “old as sh*t.”

After the Knicks lost to the Sixers in the preseason, Knicks head coach Mike Brown called out the lack of physicality from his team.

It was thought to be a preseason issue, but it’s something that has noticeably carried over to the regular season.

As the reigning NBA Champions, the Knicks are going to get the best shot from every team on any given night. There are no easy games when you’re the champs, and the Knicks are finding that out through the first five games.

Coming off an extended playoff run, even though they made it look easy in the first three rebounds, and a championship celebration is draining. Resetting for the following year is easier said than done.

One big issue for the Knicks thus far is their lack of points in the paint. They are 28th in points in the paint, getting 41.3 points per game in that area. They aren’t getting to the high chance scoring areas, or when they are, they aren’t finishing.

The playmaking fans saw from Karl-Anthony Towns in the postseason has looked more like what fans have grown accustomed to in the regular season. Hart mentioned the lack of intentionality with their cuts, and that could be why Towns isn’t finding as many open players and those players aren’t getting easy points in the paint.

It’s a long season and the Knicks have plenty of time to get their physical level to where it needs to be, but they can’t continue to keep falling behind.