Steve Popper: Knicks have bad habit of digging themselves an early hole
Knicks' Jalen Brunson shoots against the 76ers as LeBron James looks on during the second half of an Emirates NBA Cup game on Friday Oct. 30, 2026 in Philadelphia. Credit: Getty Images/Emilee Chinn
PHILADELPHIA — It has looked all too familiar for the Knicks.
They spot the opposition a double-digit lead, looking as if they’d just met on a playground, formed a five-man lineup and called “next.” Then they sound some sort of wake-up call and furiously fight their way back.
It’s the same as what they did when they overcame a 22-point deficit in the Eastern Conference finals opener against Cleveland last season before pulling out the win on the way to a four-game sweep. And it’s what they did in the historic comeback from a 29-point deficit in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, one of the double-digit deficits the Knicks saw in each of the five games of the series as they took the NBA title.
The Knicks have repeated that pattern this season, falling behind by nine points in the season opener and by double-digits in every game since, but the difference is that the comebacks have not been completed on most nights. They turned a 14-point third-quarter deficit into a late one-point lead before losing to the 76ers, 98-93, on Friday, and their title defense has begun with two wins in six games.
In the locker room after the latest letdown, the Knicks didn’t seem troubled, still confident that the problems that have put them in the hole every night will be solved.
It’s understandable. The Knicks didn’t just come back in individual games last season but shook off a 2-9 stretch in midseason, erased the memory of the one-sided losses they took against the Eastern Conference’s top-seeded Pistons and managed to put on a remarkable postseason run.
So why do they seem unable to finish off the comebacks this season?
“I wish I could tell you that one,” Josh Hart said. “If I could tell you that one and the reason, maybe it could stop happening. I think we all have a great will to win. Sometimes it just takes us a little longer than we like to find the game. Whether that’s the flow, whether that’s fatigue, whether that’s whatever it is, we got to do a better job of finding the game early, making it easy. And then not relying on double-digit comebacks. It’s taxing.”
The easy answer is that it’s early in the season. The team is still finding its way, whether it is conditioning or roles falling into place.
The alarming answer would be that maybe playing with fire the way the Knicks did last season is bound to burn them at some point. But even after this latest failure, they seemed relaxed and confident.
When it was relayed to Jalen Brunson that Hart had cited fatigue, he said, “Josh said he feels the fatigue? Well, Josh is old as [expletive].”
Only six games into a long season and without any of the injuries that have resulted in long absences elsewhere in the NBA, the Knicks still could apply a light touch as they find their way.
“I’ve said in the past, it’s always important to learn from wins,” Brunson said. “Obviously, you learn from losses as well. But there’s been plenty of times we learned from being down, what we can do, and obviously, in that same game, we made adjustments to where we weren’t down anymore. We came back and won the game. So obviously, we understand what we have to do.
“It’s just starting the game that way. And I think that just has to be our biggest point of emphasis going forward. I think we played decent in the second half, took care of the ball better, played better defense. But that’s the second half. We got to put a full 48 minutes together.”
Turnover troubles
One reason the Knicks have fallen behind in games is that they aren’t taking care of the ball. With a veteran team, the Knicks ranked sixth in the NBA in turnovers per game last season but have dropped to 11th through the first six games this season.
“I just think it’s because . . . sometimes being hesitant sometimes can put you in position where you want to make the right play, but you don’t want to turn the ball over,” Brunson said. “And then, at that point, it turns into maybe a home run pass or something.
“But we have the right intentions. We’ve got to be confident on decision-making. And don’t be afraid to fail. And like I said before, we have the confidence in this locker room to do it. We all work hard. You see it every day. Everything’s going to fall into place as it should be.”
Medical staff is elite
While the NBA is riddled with stars lost to Achilles tendon tears and knee injuries — the Thunder have seen their roster decimated by injuries, with Jalen Williams for the season, Cason Wallace possibly out for the season and Chet Holmgren facing a long rehab — the Knicks have managed to navigate the early part of the season intact.
“I don’t know, because I’m not involved in that, but knock on wood,” Mike Brown said, crediting the team’s medical and sports science staff.
“There’s 30 teams, but there’s only one [senior VP, player performance and science] Quentin Dolan, one VP, sports medicine] Casey Smith. One [head trainer Anthony Goenaga]. There’s only one of those three people. Knock on wood, the other 29 teams don’t have them. And so that’s why I don’t really care what the rest of them do. Knock on wood.”
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.
