Top 3 reasons for NY Knicks’ ugly three-game losing streak

Mike Brown was the man. His New York Knicks were 2-0, and it seemed like he had them playing the perfect style of basketball to maximize their talent and compete for a championship.

Three games later, Brown has Knicks fans on Twitter posting nostalgic pictures of Tom Thibodeau. Such is life in the “What have you done for me lately?” New York market; honestly, that’s every market in today’s social media-driven world.

Through two games, the Knicks looked poised to live up to the hype and take over the Eastern Conference. They took down last year’s top two seeds and showed newly developed championship-caliber habits in the process.

What’s followed is an active three-game losing streak that has raised serious questions about whether the Knicks are truly worthy of competing for a title, and whether Brown is the right man to lead them there.

Each of the Knicks’ last three losses was by at least eight points, and all three came on the road against an Eastern Conference team currently above them in the standings. It’s not the type of stuff you expect to see from a team that was widely expected to cruise to the Eastern Conference Finals.

If the Knicks cannot beat the Chicago Bulls on Sunday, their losing streak will extend to four games, longer than any skid under Thibodeau in the 2024-25 season. It would be their longest losing streak since February 2024.

Suffice to say, the heat is turning up on Brown, even though we are just five games into an 82-game schedule. Expectations for the Knicks were about as high as they could be, so as the team endures an extended stretch of mediocre play, fans aren’t going to give them a pass. They want to see habits that suggest the team is capable of meeting its lofty expectations, and these last three games haven’t cut it.

What’s gone wrong for the Knicks? Here are the top three problems that have emerged from their three-game skid.

1. Josh Hart is a colossal liability

Scoring and shooting have never been Josh Hart’s strengths, but he has typically been at least a playable offensive threat. Right now, Hart doesn’t look like he belongs in the rotation.

In four games, Brown has given Hart 22.3 minutes per game, yet Hart is averaging just 2.8 points per game. He is shooting 21% from the field, 10% from three, 33% from two, and 50% from the line.

Those shooting percentages will normalize to a certain degree, but worse than Hart’s shooting is his inability to even pose a threat.

Hart is attempting just 7.7 field goals and 1.6 free throws per 36 minutes. Those numbers look similar to Mitchell Robinson’s career averages (7.1 FGA and 3.2 FTA).

A wing who shoots as often (and as poorly) as a rim-protecting center cannot be on the court in today’s NBA. Plain and simple.

This would be true even if Hart were rebounding at his usual level, but he has rebounded the ball poorly over the last three games, collecting just 10 in 70 minutes (5.1 per 36 minutes). With Hart offering few rebounds alongside his terrible offense, he has turned into a team-sinking player.

Hart’s negative impact shows in the on-off numbers. He has a team-worst net rating of -21.1 points per 100 possessions. When Hart is off the court, the Knicks are a +7.9. His -29.0 on-off margin is by far the worst on the team.

Most inexcusable of all is that Hart has allowed his offensive and rebounding struggles to seep into his defensive effort. Hart has routinely been giving up baskets; according to NBA.com’s tracking, Hart has allowed a team-worst 8.8 made field goals per 36 minutes over the last three games, as well as a team-worst 63% field goal percentage when he’s the primary defender.

Hart’s confidence appears shot in all aspects of the game, and there might not be hope for him to improve to a playable level anytime soon. Not only is he shooting the ball extremely poorly, but his resulting lack of attempts is a sign that he isn’t confident enough to break out of the slump.

If Hart doesn’t step it up soon, the Knicks need to get him off the court. They can’t worry about hurt feelings or college friendships in the pursuit of a championship.

2. Karl-Anthony Towns looks uncomfortable

Whether it’s due to the injuries he is seemingly playing through, a lack of confidence, or his transition to a new system, Karl-Anthony Towns is not getting the job done.

Over the last three games, Towns has six more fouls and turnovers (20) than made baskets (14). He is shooting 35% from the field, including 19% from three.

Towns’ shooting percentages will improve from where they are at this point of the year—he won’t shoot 30.8% from three and 40.5% from two for a whole season—but his lack of comfort is a real problem.

Towns has turned the ball over at least three times in four out of five games, and he’s committed at least four fouls three times. He’s also not getting involved as a playmaker, averaging just 2.4 assists, down from 3.1 last year in a less ball-movement-centric system.

These are troubling signs for the Knicks, as they need Towns to be nothing short of dominant offensively if they want to perform at a championship-caliber level with him on the roster. Towns and Jalen Brunson will always be defensive sieves, so if the duo is not making up for it with stunningly elite offense, the Knicks will be capped out below championship-caliber.

Right now, Towns doesn’t look like he is anywhere close to playing elite offense. Part of it is missing open three-point shots, which he’ll improve upon, but he also seems downright lost. He’s had long stretches without being involved at all, and in response, he’s gone through stretches of forcing poor shots outside the flow of the offense.

Getting Towns comfortable offensively has to be New York’s top priority moving forward.

3. Where’s the defense?

For all of the talk about New York’s offensive struggles, this three-game skid mainly falls on the defense. Over their last three games, the Knicks are 14th in offensive rating (114.7) and 26th in defensive rating (123.3).

The Knicks can’t seem to do anything right defensively at the moment. Here are some of their defensive ranks since Oct. 26:

• 40.7% 3PT (28th)
• 59.4% 2PT (24th)
• 30.0 FTA per game (25th)
• 12.7 TO per game (25th)

These numbers are problematic because they indicate that New York’s recent defensive woes cannot just be chalked up to shooting luck. It’s not as if the Knicks are only coughing up points because a few teams got red-hot from deep; the Knicks are struggling to prevent points in just about every way.

In addition to allowing teams to shoot over 40% from deep, the Knicks are also letting teams make nearly 60% of their twos. They are fouling a ton, giving up 30 free throw attempts per game, and they are not forcing many turnovers.

Outside of having the sixth-best defensive rebounding percentage over the last six games (75.0%), the Knicks are doing everything they can to allow points.

And if they don’t make adjustments, things are unlikely to change. The Knicks aren’t victims of small-sample variance; they have earned these numbers through their poor play.

Simply put, New York isn’t contesting shots at an acceptable level. Over the last three games, the Knicks rank 24th with 36.0 contested shots per game, per NBA.com. This indicates that the Knicks are allowing plenty of open looks, which means they deserve to allow high percentages and will likely continue to allow them if they don’t start tightening up on shooters.

The Knicks’ defensive struggles don’t seem to be due to a lack of effort. Over the last three games, the Knicks have recovered 65.4% of loose balls, fifth-best in the league, which indicates they are still hustling.

That makes the Knicks’ defensive struggles even more troubling. If the poor play could be chalked up to lazy effort early in the season, it would be more fixable. But if the Knicks are playing hard and still bleeding open looks, it means their issues are related to either scheme or talent, two things that are much harder to correct than simply turning up the intensity.

Can the Knicks field a championship-caliber defense with Mike Brown as the head coach, Jalen Brunson at point guard, and Karl-Anthony Towns in the frontcourt? We’ll have to see.

The Knicks don’t have to match the 2000s Pistons defense to hang an Eastern Conference banner. Their path to the NBA Finals will be built around elite offense and solid defense.

Right now, though, the offense is fine instead of elite, while the defense is bad instead of solid.

There’s plenty of time to fix that, but their recent habits are concerning.