On Sunday afternoon, the New York Knicks fell back into the loss column with a tough road loss at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers. It was a rough day for Jalen Brunson, who shot just 8-19 from the field, scoring 24 points in the loss.
On Monday, ESPN sports media personality Stephen A. Smith took to “First Take” to relay his thoughts on the tough performance.
“I am not happy at all. … I'm very concerned about the Knicks,” said Smith, per First Take on X, formerly Twitter.
“This is not the same team as under Tom Thibodeau,” he added. “It's not the same team. They are softer.”
Indeed, many perceive that the Knicks have lost some of the grit and toughness under Mike Brown that they once had under Thibodeau, who was fired after New York's Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Indiana Pacers last season.
However, some had hoped that this would pay dividends come the playoffs, as New York's stars would theoretically be fresher at the end of the year, since Brown does not run his stars into the ground from a minutes perspective the way that Thibodeau did.
Funnily enough, the Knicks blew out the Denver Nuggets by nearly 40 points earlier in the week, just one day after that same Nuggets team beat the Lakers in comfortable fashion.
However, it just goes to show how much of NBA results are matchup and context-dependent, with the Lakers cruising to a victory over New York on Sunday despite not having LeBron James in the lineup due to injury.
Overall, the Knicks are still in good shape in the Eastern Conference, sitting at 41-24 on the year, and essentially locked into homecourt advantage in at least the first round of the playoffs.
They will next take the court on Monday evening against the Los Angeles Clippers.
