Every loss has been something new for Knicks still trying to figure things out

In each of the Knicks’ losses, it has been something new. A different sign that captures how they’re still — even six games and four defeats into the season — a step behind opponents at the start of their title defense, even with the same starting lineup and most of the same rotation intact from last year. 

There was the entire game opening night, when head coach Mike Brown said it looked like the Knicks were “running in mud.” There was the third quarter against the Celtics. The fourth-quarter collapse against the Magic, too. And then Friday night, it was the Knicks’ start, when they trailed by double digits in the first quarter en route to their 98-93 loss to the 76ers in Philadelphia. 

It marked their fewest points in an opening frame this season. It served as the latest reminder of a potentially concerning trend in a start to the year already filled with them. And as they’re trying to recover conditioning and erase the step missing after the condensed offseason that followed their championship run, it marked the latest sample in 2026-27 of the Knicks slipping into an insurmountable place in a game because of a costly quarter. 

“We gotta find a way to be that magical team we were last year at a more consistent pace,” Karl-Anthony Towns said following Friday’s loss. “You don’t always want to just wait until the end to find that magic. Lightning don’t strike twice, so we gotta be that team right now and we gotta continue to build off of what we did last year.” 

The Knicks trailed by 13 after the opening 12 minutes against the Pistons on Tuesday, but they responded by limiting Detroit to just three field goals in a 12-point second quarter. They only managed 13 in the third quarter. And by the end of it all, the Knicks defense had powered them to their first win of the season. 

But poor first quarters like Tuesday and Friday nearly eliminate their margin for error. With under five minutes remaining in the frame against the 76ers, Jalen Brunson tried to thread a pass to a rolling Andre Drummond, but Joel Embiid knocked the pass away — allowing for a VJ Edgecombe layup in transition moments later to give Philadelphia a 20-11 lead. Then, after the Knicks started to trim into their deficit with 3-pointers from Josh Hart and Miles McBride, Anfernee Simons responded with a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 10. The Knicks weren’t able to execute the same counter defensively, either. 

“It was almost like we were just gonna show up and go hoop and not doing the little things that we need to do to go get a win,” Brown said. 

The Knicks, Towns said, looked like a team at the end of a road trip. They didn’t find “that gear” — the one they needed to overpower opponents, the one that defined their sprint through May and June — until the fourth quarter. Double-digit comebacks are “taxing,” Hart said, and it’s not something they can rely on, even if improbable rallies were a defining part of their postseason run. 

“I think when that’s happened, we’re just coming in a little stagnant offensively,” Hart said of the Knicks’ deficits. “Forced into either bad shots or turnovers. And then, you know, stops are harder.” 

The Knicks will have chances — starting with the winless Nets and 1-5 Bulls over the next two games — to figure everything out. To fix their offensive rating that dipped to 20th in the league (109.6) entering play Saturday and solve their turnover woes that frustrated Brown on Friday. To improve their defensive rating that sits 13th (110.6) and a defensive unit that has ebbed and flowed throughout the early portion of the season. 

To eliminate the growing pains that have prevented the Knicks from looking the part of reigning champions and delivering the same magic that defined last season in the first place.