From Stefan Bondy:
The Knicks showed up on Halloween as a team at full strength.
It wasn’t a disguise but still felt like a ruse as they were toppled Friday night by the Bulls 135-125, a defeat summarized by a terrible start, a strong third quarter, a poor finish and a defense in the sewer.
Even with Mitchell Robinson and Deuce McBride back in the lineup and everybody available, they trailed for the entirety of the final 39 minutes.
Coach Mike Brown chastised the defense after allowing at least 35 points in three of the quarters.
“It’s really simple tonight. We lacked physicality that we wanted to have and we’ve been showing on the defensive end of the floor,” Brown said. “Our ability to guard the basketball was not good in the first half. We were getting blown by possession after possession after possession. And guys were finishing at the rim with no defense there. … Our defense tonight in the first half especially — in the second half it was a little better — was non-existent and it starts with guarding the basketball. We have to guard better, guard the basketball, and it has to be with a sense of physicality because if we don’t teams are going to do exactly what Chicago did on the offensive end of the floor. We lost three in a row, we’ve hit some adversity early in the season. I’m interested to see how we respond.”
That was very annoying. Here’s a thread, but I’ll have a follow-up thread right after that with an interesting piece of news!