Steve Popper: Knicks now have a taste of life as defending NBA champions
Jalen Brunson of the Knicks reacts during the third quarter against the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Maybe if the Knicks had dropped three straight games in the middle of the long and arduous 82-game schedule on the road to the playoffs instead of to start the season, it would have been a blip, a hardly noticeable slip.
But the Knicks arrived at the banner-raising opening night carrying the weight of expectations set by the long-awaited NBA championship and, maybe more telling, floated into that night on the constant praise and celebrations that engulfed the city.
The losses provided a small dose of reality and maybe the best thing that could come to the Knicks was what the Detroit Pistons did early on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden — punch the Knicks directly in the nose. Detroit had bullied the Knicks throughout the regular season last year, and they seemed intent on navigating that path again, jumping out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter with a physical attack that had the Knicks on their heels.
And then it turned. The Knicks heard it from their coach and from each other. They had to change. And they did.
After giving up 38 first-quarter points, they surrendered just 25 over the next 24 minutes and built their own leads of as many as 27 points. They got their first win and maybe planted the seeds that they really are the same team that blew through 13 straight playoff victories.
They then boarded a flight to Chicago to face a Bulls squad with the same record but much lower expectations. And they hoped that they had shown — or been shown — exactly what life is like for them as the defending champs.
“They understand it, but, you know, this is a long season, and we can have some hiccups, you know?” Mike Brown said. “And that's what the season's for. It's trying to correct it so then come playoff time you're ready to go do what you need to do. So is it fixed? No, it ain't fixed. Nothing's really fixed.
“What [Tuesday’s win] shows us is, we're more than capable, if we put our minds to it, and that's what we got to continue to try to build off, and then if we do slip up, that we don't slip up for eight minutes or 10 minutes, maybe for a minute and a half or two minutes, and then we regroup, and we get back headed in the right direction again.”
The Knicks knew this direction even before the season began. Jalen Brunson cautioned at the start of camp that the first few weeks would tell them where they are, and maybe even he didn’t expect to start with the sputtering engine the team displayed through those first three games. But after the last loss, he repeated that bit of caution and added, “We’re going to get everyone’s best because of last year. Everyone has been telling us what a great job we did, how fun it was, what we did for the city, the constant praise and so we need to be the opposite.”
They are not the first team to suffer through this. Eight straight NBA champions have failed to repeat. After knocking off the Knicks last week, Boston coach Joe Mazzulla spoke of the lessons learned from the Celtics' title three seasons ago
"That's the competitive realm that you're in," Mazzulla said. "Everybody is fighting to get to the top, and when you get to the top, you realize that there's both pros and cons to it, and you have to fight to be able to stay there. I can give you an example of, like, once you were there you have to trick yourself as if you've never been there. And you have to find a level of gratitude and perspective for getting there, but then, at the same time, you got to trick yourself.”
When that comment was relayed to Brunson after the win Tuesday, he said, “What did I say at the end of the [game]? Don't praise anymore. So there's the trickery, right?”
Maybe panic wasn’t setting in, but reality was before the Knicks finally got the win. The better sign than just the final score over an opponent who had dominated them last season was how the Knicks did it. They got physical. Karl-Anthony Towns turned around the game after Detroit’s Paul Reed had dominated early. Towns finished with 27 points and 20 rebounds. Mikal Bridges hit four threes, shaking off the 10 points he’d totaled in the first three games with a 0-for-10 drought from beyond the arc.
They even looked like they were having fun with it. To bring up the mantra from years past, the vibes were immaculate.
“I mean, we lost three straight,” Towns said. “And to play a great team like we did [Tuesday] who came in 3-0, you know, we had to answer the call. And even the first half it was looking like that team we've been the first three games, but for us to respond the way we did is great.
"All in all at the end, we found a way to win, get that first one on the left column, and that's the most important thing.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
