{"id":3665,"date":"2026-01-19T07:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T23:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/with-a-2-8-stretch-history-suggests-the-knicks-nba-finals-dreams-may-be-in-jeopardy\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T07:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T23:26:42","slug":"with-a-2-8-stretch-history-suggests-the-knicks-nba-finals-dreams-may-be-in-jeopardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/with-a-2-8-stretch-history-suggests-the-knicks-nba-finals-dreams-may-be-in-jeopardy\/","title":{"rendered":"With a 2-8 stretch, history suggests the Knicks’ NBA Finals dreams may be in jeopardy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

When New York Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns hit a 3-pointer with about a minute left against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night to try to snap a seven-point team lead, Knicks fans inside Madison Square Garden were excited for what could have been a spark of a comeback. But the shot went to the left, missed everything and went out of bounds.<\/p>\n

The fans started booing the Knicks, and the players were physically speaking after the airball and showed visible frustration as they looked to lose their third straight, and eighth in their last 10 games.<\/p>\n

After the game, Knicks coach Mike Brown joined the fans in their booing, saying “the fans have a right to boo” after another disappointing loss.<\/p>\n

If the Knicks’ new year’s resolution was to win the NBA championship, this is certainly not a certainty of what is happening. They have a 2-7 record in January, and the only team with a worse record is the Utah Jazz, a team with just 14 wins on the season. <\/p>\n

Although it may seem like a bad situation in a long season, there are not many times in league history where a team went 2-8 at any point in the regular season and went on to win the title. In fact, only six<\/em> NBA champions have done that before, according to CBS Sports’ research department.<\/p>\n

NBA Finals teams have a 2-8 span in the same season<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

2021-22<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

The Golden State Warriors<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

He won the Final<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

2017-18<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

2014-15<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

2010-11<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Dallas Mavericks<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

He won the Final<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

2003-04<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

The Detroit Pistons<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

He won the Final<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1980-81<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Houston Rockets<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1977-78<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Washington Bullets<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

He won the Final<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1977-78<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Seattle SuperSonics<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1975-76<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

The Phoenix Suns<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1974-75<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

The Golden State Warriors<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

It won the final<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1970-71<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Baltimore Bullets<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1969-70<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Los Angeles Lakers<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1966-67<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

San Francisco Warriors<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1962-63<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Los Angeles Lakers<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1958-59<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

The Minneapolis Lakers<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1956-57<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Louis the Hawks<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1951-52<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

The New York Knicks<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lost Finals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1947-48<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Baltimore Bullets<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

It won the final<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The last team to do it was the 2021-22 Warriors, who had the greatest shooter in NBA history on their team in Stephen Curry and burned through the NBA Finals en route to his first Finals MVP. That doesn’t mean the Knicks can’t rebound from this poor streak, and there’s certainly plenty of evidence to suggest the team still can. do<\/em> in the finals even though they played 2-8. But the Knicks don’t want to just get the participation trophy to reach the NBA Finals, the goal is to carry the Larry O’Brien trophy in June.<\/p>\n

What has been going on with this group since then? Jalen Brunson has missed the last two games with an ankle injury, which isn’t helping. But even if Brunson is back healthy, he’s not the biggest issue that has plagued the Knicks this season.<\/p>\n

The defense has been terrible<\/h2>\n

The Knicks have no problem putting points on the board. Yes, in those 10 tough games they outscored the third-best offense all season to 21, but that can be explained by the issue of the shooting differential. The Knicks were the third-leading 3-point team all season, but in January they dropped to 23rd. They’re still hitting about the same amount of 3s per game (about 39 per game), so no one is taking that shot away from them, but the efficiency is down. Mikal Bridges, who is at 43.1% in 3 years in the first three months, dropped to 35.6% in January. In December and January, OG Anunoby was very cold from the depths.<\/p>\n

Because of that poor shooting there has been a tendency to over-rely on Brunson’s ability to pick on defenders one-on-one, creating a stagnant offense, but those are easy fixes. And we’ve seen the Knicks cut back on isolation attempts this season compared to the past few years when the gameplan often allowed Brunson to take control of the ball and take it for himself, or break down the defense and kick it to the shooter. There is room for the case to go back.<\/p>\n

The defense, however, has not been great this season. What was once New York’s calling card is now its Achilles heel. The team ranks 19th in defense, and over the past 10 games, that has gotten worse, as only the lowly Jazz have allowed more points than the blue and orange during this miserable stretch.<\/p>\n

Part of this issue can be summed up by this one property that was recently lost on the road of 112-101 to Makhosi.<\/p>\n

Brown called Towns out for not rushing back on defense, and a few other times not just on him, but the entire team. <\/p>\n

“When you get down, you gotta get up,” Brown said after the game. “You’ve got to run down, and even if you’re the last guy down, you’ve got to get down there, in case there’s a long rebound. But there was no rush. Now, that wasn’t the only play. There were a few plays where we did that, but there was no mental urgency in that particular play to go back. And it was a five-point swing.”<\/p>\n

Against the Warriors, the Knicks built a 17-point lead in the first quarter, and things started to fall apart defensively. There was no communication to fix the exchange disruptions, and they were caught sleeping several times which created easy backdoor cuts for the Warriors.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Butler took over that game doing his usual Jimmy Butler stuff. He will beat you, he will fight for the chance to hit second and third and make life difficult for you. The Knicks have great individual defenders in Bridges, Anunoby and Hart, but, as a team, the continued decline makes this team vulnerable.<\/p>\n

They are one of the worst teams at defending the three-point line. Opponents are shooting 37.3% from 3 this season against the Knicks, which has increased to 39% over the past 10 games. The guys don’t make an effort to close the perimeter, as most of the opposing 3s the Knicks have come up with open looks.<\/p>\n

Knicks 3-point defense, 2025-26 season<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

0-2 feet (very hard)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

0.2%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

0.2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

42.9%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

2-4 feet (Confirmed)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

4.3%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

3.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

33.5%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

4-6 feet (Open)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

17.6%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

15.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

36.5%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

6+ feet (wide open)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

22.9%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

19.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

38.7%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Brown predicted his team’s defensive struggles a few weeks ago after a win against the Pelicans, in which the Knicks narrowly escaped with a five-point victory against a New Orleans team that had won just eight games so far this season.<\/p>\n

“We haven’t thought about how we can be physical for 48 minutes in the last I don’t know how many games,” said Brown. “We’re picking up stupid mistakes that we need to do a better job of. I feel like everybody understands that, but now we have to do it. Our physical condition is not good. I don’t know if we’re tired or what, but we couldn’t defend for 48 minutes. We won a lot of games, and you want to win good games at the end of the day. How we can support what we have to do defensively for 48 minutes is going to be a long year for us, and it’s going to come down to us.”<\/p>\n

Two and a half weeks after Brown said that and the Knicks have already been caught in a bad way.<\/p>\n

Should the Knicks be worried?<\/h2>\n

Definitely. If they can’t figure out their defensive issues, and forget about winning the title, they could be knocked out early if they’re not careful. Of course, teams have been known to fluctuate when the postseason rolls around, and the Knicks may share a lot with the motivation to win a title that drives them forward. But now is where that should be used. <\/p>\n

If this troubling trend doesn’t change, it could be a problem the Knicks are trying to fix in the trade market. There have been trade rumors in the past linking the Knicks to Giannis Antetokounmpo, and he would certainly fill a ton of weaknesses defensively. The Knicks also added Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado, who has made a name for himself as a go-getter and a defensive nuisance. Think of him as another Josh Hart out there, which the Knicks would really like.<\/p>\n

If no trade happens, then the Knicks will have to look in the mirror and see how they can mitigate this problem internally. Otherwise, they could be the next in a long line of teams that could make it to the finals, but fail to take the title because their defense is not their job.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When New York Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns hit a 3-pointer with about a minute left against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night to try to snap a seven-point team lead, Knicks fans inside Madison Square Garden were excited for what could have been a spark of a comeback. But the shot went to the left, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3667,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3665\/revisions\/3667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}