Mike Brown calls out Knicks’ lack of physicality…
BOSTON — The Knicks bricked too many photographs in their first two video games. Plenty of open ones, too. But coach Mike Brown wasn’t involved about the misfiring after his group was toppled Friday evening by the Celtics.
Those will ultimately fall. Especially Jalen Brunson’s. The Knicks aren’t going to shoot just 40.8 % just like the mixed home and street openers.
But Brown did establish a evident issue because the championship hangover apparently hit the Knicks with laziness.
“It was a physical ballgame and [the Celtics] had the advantage out there with the physicality,” Brown said.
New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown reacts on the baseline in the first half of a recreation against the Philadelphia 76ers at Madison Square Garden in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Brown reiterated, a number of instances after Friday’s 107-103 defeat, the issue that has plagued the Knicks intermittently for years: the lack, or unwillingness, to battle through picks.
It was exacerbated in Beantown because the refs had been cooler than traditional with shifting screens, permitting the Celtics to hunt mismatches with weaker defenders like Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
“They set a screen, and we lay on the screen, don’t fight to get through it,” Brown said. “And then we have to switch and get the wrong matchup. That’s why I bring up their physicality in screens, whether it’s the pick-and-roll or off the ball. If that is there from the other team and we’re not defending the screens the right way, communicating, and navigating them the right way instead of laying, laying, laying — it’s going to start the dominoes to fall. If they’re illegal or not, it doesn’t matter.”
Jayson Tatum cooked the Knicks for 36 factors, three days after another star ball handler, Tyrese Maxey, filleted the Knicks for 28 factors.
The point-of-attack protection has been suspect and OG Anunoby’s tough start is a problematic issue. He’s supposed to be the Knicks’ top stopper and owns the worst defensive ranking among the starters through two video games.
Mikal Bridges, the other defensive specialist, was benched for a lot of Friday’s recreation — including the ultimate 8 ¹/₂ minutes — amid a 2-for-16 taking pictures stoop.
The Knicks closed with Miles McBride over Bridges and practically pulled off the comeback, but Tatum buried a couple of troublesome photographs over Josh Hart.
Jayson Tatum (0) of the Boston Celtics handles the ball during a recreation against the New York Knicks at TD Garden in Boston, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. NBAE via Getty Images
“At the end of the first quarter there was a two-minute stretch where we were just b—hing to the referees instead of just playing through it,” Brown said. “In the third, their level of physicality picked up. And also the beginning of the fourth quarter. And we found a combination toward the end that handled their physicality. And we were just as physical back. And that gave us a chance to win. But against a good team on the road, it was too late.”
Brown said the hassle also negatively impacted the group’s offense because it led to turnovers.
“When we tried to drive the basketball, we either fell on the ground and there was no call, or when we got in the paint, and they brought a second guy they had us either jumping in the air and turning it over, or they had us on the heels, trying to make sprays. And it was just because they got us in our bodies,” the coach said. There was a stage of physicality that Boston introduced to the desk that precipitated us to have 18 turnovers on the street in contrast to their 11 turnovers. It’s going to be powerful to win.”
The Knicks, as a outcome, grew to become the first defending champs to start 0-2 since the Mavericks in 2011. The good news is that they’re back home Sunday against the Magic, who are also 0-2 after getting blown out Friday by the Timberwolves.
A defeat against Orlando would have Brown considering a shedding start to the first section of the championship-defending season.
“We break the season into five-game segments,” Brown said. “There are marks that we like to hit in those 5 video games and it type of offers us a good really feel of where you had been, in a honest quantity of video games, and to see if you can also make progress in the next 5.
“Obviously you want to go 5-0, you’ll take 4-1, and then maybe you have to take 3-2. But if you’re doing anything less than that, you know that nobody is reaching their potential.”
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