Brown knows his team got away with one on Friday against Brooklyn.
The New York Knicks walked away from Barclays Center on Friday night with a 93-92 win over the Brooklyn Nets, but head coach Mike Brown was the first person to admit his team had no business feeling good about it.
"I thought they came out and they were extremely physical from the beginning of the game throughout the whole game and it impacted us, starting with Jordi," Brown said during his postgame press conference. "Jordi outcoached me. They outplayed us in a lot of areas and we were just able to find a way to get a win."
The Nets Brought the Fight Early
It has become a recurring theme for the Knicks under Brown this season, and Friday was no different.
New York came out flat against a Brooklyn team that had every reason to play with energy, and the Nets jumped all over them early with full-court pressure on Jalen Brunson and physical play throughout the lineup that disrupted the Knicks' rhythm from the opening tip.
Brooklyn built a 13-point lead in the first half while holding New York to just 14 points in the first quarter, and for a while it looked like the 17-53 Nets were the ones with something to play for instead of the team chasing home court advantage in the Eastern Conference.
Brown has talked about the importance of setting the tone early throughout the entire season, and even though this was a game the Knicks should have controlled from the start, they once again needed a second-half rally to dig themselves out of a hole.
New York eventually built a 14-point cushion in the fourth quarter before the Nets ripped off a 17-0 run to take an 87-84 lead with 3:33 remaining.
Brunson came through with two clutch jumpers in the final two minutes to put the Knicks ahead for good, but Karl-Anthony Towns missing a pair of free throws with 4.9 seconds left gave Brooklyn a final chance that Ben Saraf could not convert.
KAT Carried the Load
Towns was the reason the Knicks survived, finishing with 26 points on 7-of-16 shooting and 15 rebounds while going 11-of-13 from the free throw line.
It was his 49th double-double of the season for a player averaging 20.0 points and 11.9 rebounds per game.
Brunson had a tough night with just 17 points on 19 shots after returning from ankle and neck issues, but his clutch jumpers in the final minutes were the difference between a win and an embarrassing loss.
Knicks Continue to Own the Rivalry
Friday's result extended New York's winning streak over Brooklyn to 14 consecutive games, a run that stretches all the way back to February 2023 and represents the longest streak for either team in the history of the rivalry.
The Knicks have dominated this matchup in every way possible this season, including a 120-66 blowout back in January that set a franchise record for largest margin of victory, and Friday's one-point escape completed a sweep of the four-game season series.
The win moved New York to 46-25 on the season while Brooklyn dropped to 17-53, and even though the result was never really in doubt from a big-picture standpoint, Brown knows his team cannot afford to play like that with the postseason approaching.
The Knicks have now won five straight overall, but their approach against lesser opponents continues to be something Brown has to address if this team wants to make a serious run toward the Finals.