Mike Brown calls out Knicks’ defense after lax ways finally catch up to them

Mike Brown’s postgame news conference Wednesday centered on one theme.

“I just hope, sooner than later, our guys collectively want to sustain, the right way, the play on the defensive end of the floor,” Brown said after the Knicks’ 134-132 loss to the Spurs in San Antonio. “We’ll figure it out offensively as the game goes on. But when you play the way we play defensively, which is in spurts, you’re gonna keep giving a team hope. And when you give a team hope in this league, guys are too talented. They’re gonna find a way, especially a good team.”

That’s exactly what the Spurs did, scoring 41 points in the fourth quarter to come back and snap the Knicks’ three-game win streak.

The lax defense by the Knicks was a problem throughout their just-completed three-game road trip but was covered up by late-game heroics and strong offensive production.

They probably deserved to lose against both the Hawks and Pelicans with how they defended but bailed themselves out down the stretch. On Wednesday it finally caught up to them.

They were without Josh Hart (ankle) for all three games of the road trip and Mitchell Robinson (load management) for the final two games. They are two of the strongest Knicks defenders and should certainly make a difference when they return.

But it has gone back further than that, when both were playing. In eight games since their NBA Cup triumph, the Knicks have a defensive rating of 120.9 — fourth-worst in the NBA over that stretch.

“I truly believe that the guys care and they want to try and do the right thing. We just haven’t done it. We gotta go do it. Sometimes, when you win games, it’s human nature to just think, ‘It’s gonna happen,’ subconsciously when that does occur. Maybe that’s the case, I don’t know. But what I do know is we have to sustain whatever we’re trying to do defensively, for 48 minutes and not look back on a game and say ‘man if we would’ve been a little bit more physical here, a little bit smarter here and play with a sense of urgency for 48 minutes defensively, we had a great chance to win.’ But I can’t say that.”

At one point in the fourth quarter, with the Knicks up by eight with 7:30 left in the game, Tyler Kolek backpedaled too far as Julian Champagnie dribbled up the court in transition, allowing him to pull up for an easy and uncontested 3. Brown immediately called timeout and was as animated and direct as he has been all year, going right over to Kolek with his arms out in frustration.

Brown even mimicked how Kolek should have defended it, and their conversation continued on the bench as play resumed.

It was emblematic of how Brown felt his whole team defended.

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The effort defensively is there at times — particularly when they face deficits and they’re losing or in crunch time. But it has not been consistent for entire games.

“If we’re up, we’re like ‘OK, we’re good.’ And we have three or four just bad defensive plays in a row,” Brown said. “It’s not like their execution, and I’m not taking anything away from them, but it’s not like their execution is great or anything. It’s just like ‘OK, you know what? I’m gonna kind of jog through this action and I’m gonna trail this guy that’s hot.’ And then he catches and shoots a wide-open 3. Or ‘I’m not gonna pull all the way in and tag the roll guy, I’m just gonna stay right here.’ It’s stuff like that that’s in our control that we don’t control. And we do it for stretches throughout the game.”

Winning can mask problems like this. Recently, the Knicks have found ways to win despite their soft defense.

But, the first two games of the road trip, it came against weak opposition in the Hawks and Pelicans. Against a contender like the Spurs, it’s much harder to overcome.

“It’s great when you win and you can still fix things, but a loss really sets you back to reality,” Miles McBride said. “And it definitely did for us tonight.”