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New York Knicks coach Mike Brown had a clear message on Monday ahead of Game 2 against the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden: the Knicks have to keep making the right choices, especially when the matchup turns physical and the coverages shift.
Brown pointed to Karl-Anthony Towns as a key piece on both ends. “When KAT wants to, he can be a really, really good defender, especially at his size. He’s causing problems,” Brown said, adding that Towns’ “pick and roll defense was at a pretty high level” in Game 1 and “that’s something that we need for him to continue to do.”
He also praised the way New York tried to disrupt Atlanta’s pick-and-roll rhythm. Brown said the staff wanted “to see if we can cause a little confusion,” and that the Knicks’ goal was not to stop Trae Young and Dyson Daniels outright, but to “temper them a little better, or at least have a chance to control it a little bit.”
Brown said Atlanta’s pace still demands cleaner transition defense from his team. “The biggest thing more than anything else is you can see it on the tape. They want to play fast,” he said, stressing that New York must “do a better job of getting back in transition” and must keep “one body on bodies” when the Hawks crash the glass.
He was just as direct about the Knicks’ size options and Mitchell Robinson’s role. Brown said, “Mitch gives us a lot on both ends of the floor, so we’d like him out there,” but added that New York feels comfortable going small if Atlanta tries to force a matchup change.
The Knicks coach also used Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby as examples of playoff discipline. Brown said Brunson “kept trying to take the right shots,” while Anunoby “kept playing the game the right way” and “tried to do the little things to impact the game” on both ends.
Brown said that same mindset has to carry through the rest of the series. “All our guys have to continue doing a great job of that throughout the course of our playoff run,” he said, pointing to the bench as part of the edge because “those things pay big dividends, whether you’re on the floor or off the floor.”
The Knicks lead the series 1-0 after a 113-102 win in Game 1, and Brown made it clear that the standard will not change. “It starts from the top and everybody has to be aligned,” he said. “That’s what you like here.”
