Knicks captain Jalen Brunson called a players-only meeting after New York was blown out at home by the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, sources told ESPN.
Brunson’s message to teammates after their ninth loss in 11 games, according to multiple sources, was that the Knicks needed to find answers for their poor play in January among themselves, rather than look to the coaching staff for solutions.
After a strong 23-9 start to the season, including winning the NBA Cup, the Knicks have fallen to 25-18 as their offense has sputtered to the bottom five in the league in January.
After fans at Madison Square Garden roundly booed the home team as it trailed 75-45 at halftime, Brunson told reporters, “As a team we know what we have to do. It’s either we do it, we care enough to do it, or we don’t.”
Afterward, he was concerned enough about the situation to call the meeting and make clear to his teammates that the answers for their recent struggles were to be found within the walls of the locker room.
“We all need to do some soul-searching,” Knicks forward Josh Hart said after the game. “Right now we’re playing embarrassing basketball. We’re not executing on the offensive end. Defensively, we’ve been abysmal. We’ve been terrible defensively all year.”
