New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown speaks on his team's recent slide.
The New York Knicks have lost three straight and eight of their last ten.
They have fallen to third in the East, six games behind the Detroit Pistons for first and a game and a half behind the Boston Celtics for second. They are just two games up on the Philadelphia 76ers, who occupy the first Play-In spot.
After the Knicks' latest loss to the Phoenix Suns, head coach Mike Brown addressed concerns.
"You don't want to lose games at all, especially going 2-8 in the last ten. There's concern there, but not to the point we're going to overhaul everything. We have to work. We have to look in the mirror and see how we can individually help the group, starting with me," he said.
Offense Not Helping Defense
The Knicks had a defensive rating of 112.3 in November, good enough for tenth in the league as they went 11-3. Their offensive rating was 122.8.
In December, that number went up (not a good thing) to 118, but they still went 10-4 and won the NBA Cup thanks to an offensive rating of 123.2.
It's been a completely different script in January. Their defensive rating has gone up once again, jumping to 119.6, which is only better than the Utah Jazz. It's their offense that has fallen off a cliff, though, with their offensive rating plummeting to 111.4.
Much is made about the Knicks defensive issues, and they are certainly part of the problem, but it's tougher to defend when you're not scoring the basketball.
For the month, their pace sits at 97, two points lower than their season average of 99; their assist-to-turnover ratio is in the bottom five in the league, and they're shooting just 47% from the field, which is 27th.
Jalen Brunson's Drop In Play
The Knicks' offense begins with Jalen Bruson, who was put in MVP conversations after he helped lead the Knicks to the NBA Cup.
In the first three months of the season, Brunson averaged 29.4 points and 6.6 assists with 2.1 turnovers.
In January, not counting the game against the Sacramento Kings where he played just five minutes due to an ankle injury, he's averaging 26.5 points and 4.8 assists with 3.3 turnovers. He has an offensive rating of 115, a big drop from his December rating of 129, while his defensive rating has remained at 124.
Brunson has been sidelined for the last two games with an ankle injury and is listed as day-to-day. When he does return to the lineup, the Knicks need him to drive the offense and take care of the ball the way he did through the first quarter of the season.