Brunson admits key process “should have started weeks ago” as Knicks suffer painful defeat
The New York Knicks suffered what one voice called an “embarrassing” defeat to the Dallas Mavericks.
There’s something almost comforting about despair. The early season promise has gone, the head-spinning nosebleed territory of the top of the table is a distant dream, and the familiarity of gut-wrenching anger is back with a vengeance.
The New York Knicks lost in a pathetic showing against a spirited Dallas Mavericks, with the scoreboard reading 114-97 at Madison Square Gardens at the end of the night which saw them trail by 30 points at one stage.
Knicks captain Jalen Brunson, fresh from being named an All-Star starter and returning from injury alongside Josh Hart, offered a blunt assessment in the aftermath. Asked how New York can arrest its slide, he acknowledged that the introspection needed to happen much earlier. “It should have started a couple of weeks ago,” he said, “but we’ve got to start tomorrow.”
“There’s been a lot of things to pinpoint, but I mean as a team we know what we have to do‚” Brunson added. “It’s either we do it, we care enough to do it, or we don’t.”
"I’d be booing us too, straight up... We just didn’t follow the game plan at all."
"At some point we gotta wake up…create some energy for ourselves. They're not gonna give it to us…our own f*king energy…Wake the f*k up…It's up to us…And don't watch the frigging news"
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) January 20, 2026
–– AI on what Jalen Brunson said to Knicks during loss to Mavs (incomplete/imperfect) pic.twitter.com/OLVQlvguON
“I haven’t seen this kind of effort that we had today”
That sense of missed momentum was mirrored on the court. The Mavericks outpaced the Knicks on all fronts, putting up a blistering 27 fast-break points in the first half and asserting control like a tarantula on an ant farm.
New York’s effort, at times uncharacteristically lackadaisical, drew sharp criticism from the fans as they watched the pathetic showing unfold in front of their eyes. Hart labelled the effort “embarrassing,” encapsulating the frustration felt by supporters, who booed their players from the stands. “I haven’t seen this kind of effort that we had today,” he lamented.
Head coach Mike Brown, who steered the Knicks to a promising 23-9 start after taking over last season, also giving the fans the green light for their reaction. “I’m okay with the boos. If we’re playing crappy, boo. If I were in the stands, I’d probably boo, too. You pay hard money to come to the game, and this is a form of entertainment for the fans. They know good basketball, they know bad basketball.”
“They scored 75 points in the first half,” Brown fumed. “Halftime, we usually do the clips and talk about technical X’s and O’s and all that crap that coaches do, teams do. There was nothing to be said at halftime. Except for lock in and do your f*king — do your job.”
final pic.twitter.com/PSM4kf5Di2
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) January 20, 2026
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Up next for the Knicks is a home match against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday 21 January, again at Madison Square Gardens. It’s safe to say that they should win this one, making the potential reaction from angry fans even more vitriolic should the worst happen.
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