Knicks' 'Roommates' Address Struggles vs. NBA Elite

Two of the losses came last weekend, as the Knicks were dealt one-sided defeats by Cleveland and Boston, the only teams ahead of them in the current Eastern landscape. Friday's 37-point loss in Cleveland was the most one-sided defeat in the Tom Thibodeau era that began in 2020-21.

Hart offered two points of view on the trend, one of which could be "extremely beneficial."

"It could put you in a position of being humbled and realizing that we have a lot of room to grow if you want to compete with these guys and this team," Hart said. "Or it could kind of break teams and you think, oh, we're not as good as these people or these teams. I think, with the mentality that we have, and the character of the team that we have, I think it would be the first one. I think it would be a more humbling statistic for us."

"We have good players and we have great talent but we got to go out there and we have to put forth the effort every game and every possession and not concede easy baskets or start the game off slow, or anything like that. We've got to start pushing ourselves to the limit on both ends of the court, which is why I'm not really panicking with that stat because I think it will open our eyes to realizing we have to get to another level individually and as a team, obviously."

To Hart's point, the Knicks have endured early deficits that have been difficult to erase in such showings: they trailed by 19 after the opening period of Sunday's game in Boston and permanently trailed by double figures after Cleveland took a dozen-point lead 61 seconds into the second period.

Hart did not play in the 142-105 loss to the Cavaliers and watched from home—at least what he could stomach. Sidelined with a knee injury, Hart said he stopped watching after the third quarter but he hopes that everyone involved with Knicks basketball takes the time to take in the embarrasment.

"I think everyone should at least watch that game and see how it looks," Hart said. "That's not who we are as a team. It starts from the top with [owner James] Dolan, [president] Leon [Rose], Thibs, that's not who we are. We're not going to settle for that being the product that we put on the court."

Brunson disagreed, saying that what the Knicks have done on the court is indeed "who [they] are," but that "there's an opportunity to fix it." The Knicks, for example, have a chance to re-establish their championship momentum on Friday night when they face the current Western Conference silver medalists in Memphis (8 p.m. ET, MSG).

In acknowledging the defeats, Brunson referenced prior showings against Cleveland and Oklahoma City, ones where the Knicks held double-figure leads of their own before seeing them go by the wayside. When the Cavaliers visited Madison Square Garden in October, for example, the Knicks held a 13-point lead before dropping a final 110-104 decision.

"The frustrating part about this is that we have what it takes, we have the personnel," Brunson lamented to Hart and Hillman. "We have everything we need in that locker room. We've just got to put it together ... the amount of times we've been embarassed on national television, that should ring a bell. That should be a wake-up call in of itself, not just for those games, just like for the rest of the season. We've got to wake the [heck] up."