Elite team chemistry that performed Nix before the championship was absent in the first six games of the new season, writes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. Cohesiveness is a quality that needs to be restored, not transferred, and trained Mike Brown likens it to mountain climbing.
“We climb a mountain as a team and we conquer a mountain, then you have to come back down, take a rest, then you have to climb another mountain.” – said Brown. “It’s the same thing. And when you climb that mountain a second time, you’re starting from base camp again. And if you miss steps doing it, you’re going to die. For us, it’s not as tragic. If you’re sitting at 2-4, people sometimes equate it to that, but it’s the same thing: getting each step right, taking it in and trying to get a little bit better.”
So far, there have been more valleys than peaks, and the most obvious problems are in an offense with too many losses and too much isolation. Schwartz notes that there were similar problems a year ago, when the team started with a score of 2-3 times Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns trying to figure out how to split the pictures. Eventually those problems were solved, and Brown believes the current ones will be, too.
“If we don’t go through our growing pains and we can’t go through our growing pains for whatever reason — because we don’t want to go through it again so hard, or we think we know, or whatever — if we can’t go through our growing pains, we don’t have a chance.” – he said.
There are more from New York:
- Jose Alvarado practiced Sunday and is listed as questionable for tonight’s contest against Brooklyn after missing the last four games with a sprained ankle, Schwartz adds a separate story. This may result in less playing time Tyler Kolekwho logged 57 minutes in those games and dished out 25 assists in two losses. “Tyler will definitely continue to play while Jose is gone” Brown said last week. “When he comes back, we’ll deal with it.”
- One encouraging sign after Friday’s loss to Philadelphia was that we are seeing Mikal Bridges make 5 of 8 three-pointers, Christian Winfield of The New York Daily News states in the story for subscribers only. Bridges is off to a miserable shooting start and is still only connecting on 33.3% from the field and 29.2% from beyond the arc. “Just staying with it,” he said “and just staying aggressive and continuing to find opportunities.”
- Josh Hart suggested that early-season fatigue may have been a factor Friday as the Knicks played their third game in four nights, over Ian Begley of SNY.tv. “We’re all feeling fatigued. So we’ve got to deal with that. Six games. So we’ve got to find a way to make sure our bodies are ready to play every day.” Hart said. “I think mentally we’re there. We just have to find it physically.”
