NEW YORK — As boos rained down while his team walked off the court after trailing the Dallas Mavericks by 30 points, Knicks coach Mike Brown decided it would be a waste of time to talk X’s and O’s in the locker room.
“There was nothing to be said at halftime except for lock in and do your … do your job,” Brown said Monday, catching himself when he started to use an expletive during his news conference.
His message might’ve been hard to hear, anyway, above the fans at Madison Square Garden who were loudly showing how fed up they are with a team that is losing control of a season that had championship aspirations.
The Knicks have gone from NBA Cup champions to not even being able to rule out the play-in tournament thanks to a January freefall that saw them lose for the ninth time in 11 games with their 114-97 defeat to the Mavericks.
As for what has gone wrong since the Knicks raised the Cup last month in Las Vegas?
“There’s been a lot of things to pinpoint, but I mean as a team we know what we have to do,” captain Jalen Brunson said. “It’s either we do it, we care enough to do it, or we don’t.”
Brunson was announced as an All-Star starter earlier Monday, then he and fellow starter Josh Hart were cleared to return from injuries. It had the makings of a celebratory day inside Madison Square Garden.
Instead, the Knicks were behind 16-4 minutes into the game and 75-45 just before halftime. It marked only the sixth time the Knicks have given up 75 points in an opening half at MSG.
“I haven’t seen this kind of effort that we had today. It was embarrassing,” Hart said.
Brown read off the stats that showed just how embarrassing: 27 fast-break points for the Mavericks in the first half and 28 in the paint — against an injury-depleted opponent without a true post-up player, he noted.
Brown inherited a talented and veteran roster when the Knicks surprisingly fired Tom Thibodeau despite reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years. Brown had the Knicks off to a 23-9 start, but they are now 25-18.
Brunson was asked how the team begins a soul-searching process.
“It should’ve started a couple weeks ago, but we’ve got to start tomorrow,” he said.
Brunson was seen during the game televised nationally on NBC trying to urge on his teammates during a second-quarter timeout, but he wouldn’t say afterward what his message was. Nor could he or Brown explain the no-show in the first half.
The boos largely stopped in the second half, though they returned in the fourth quarter when Karl-Anthony Towns was subbed out of the game. Towns said he understood the frustration on a day the Knicks not only didn’t win but didn’t “really have a chance.”
“Fans are doing their part and we’ve got to do our part,” Towns said.
The Mavericks, meanwhile, welcomed back star rookie Cooper Flagg. He had 18 points in his first pro game at Madison Square Garden after sitting out Dallas’ previous two games, both victories over the Utah Jazz, because of a sprained left ankle. The No. 1 pick also had seven rebounds.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
