On Sunday afternoon, the New York Knicks returned to the loss column with a tough loss at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers. It was a tough day for Jalen Brunson, who shot just 8-19 from the field and scored 24 points in the loss.
On Monday, ESPN sports media personality Stephen A. Smith took to "First Take" to express his thoughts on the difficult performance.
"I'm not happy at all... I'm very concerned about the Knicks," said Smith, formerly of First Take on X, on Twitter.
"This is not a Tom Thibodeau-led team," he said. "It's not the same team. They're soft."
In fact, many believe the Knicks have lost some of the patience and toughness under Mike Brown that they once had under Thibodeau, who was fired after New York lost to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals last season.
However, some expected this to pay off in the playoffs, as New York's stars would theoretically be refreshed at the end of the year, as Brown does not run his stars into the ground from a minutes perspective the way Thibodeau did.
What's interesting is that the Knicks beat the Denver Nuggets by nearly 40 points earlier in the week, just a day after that same Nuggets team beat the Lakers in comfortable fashion.
However, it just goes to show how much NBA results are matchup and context-dependent, with the Lakers headed to a win 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 are essentially locked into homecourt advantage at least in the first round of the playoffs.
They will next take the court on Monday evening against the Los Angeles Clippers.
