Mike Brown calls out Knicks' defense in paint, turnovers after frustrating loss to 76ers

Head coach Mike Brown was not happy with how the Knicks played, especially in the first half, in a 98-93 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night and aired his frustrations after the game."They were getting in our paint left and right, right and left, and it was really, really easy doing it," Brown said.The Sixers ended the night with 36 paint points, but scored 26 down low in the first half, where they also shot 5-for-17 from downtown. Too often, those points in the paint came way too easily, with many players on New York not moving and just looking at the ball while allowing Philadelphia to waltz right in for an easy score. Not good, to quote Brown.The disappointing defense also came just hours after Brown said pregame that "our transition defense right now stinks," which was another problem on Friday with Philadelphia scoring 23 points off turnovers. In fact, turnovers were Brown's next biggest gripe with his team after they coughed it up eight times in the first half (though they cleaned it up some in the second half with five). "It’s been going on all year," Brown said. "We’re trying to hit a home run every time we get the ball and we have to hit singles. We can’t hit a home run, we gotta hit singles offensively, and then if our play breaks down, we have to move."The Knicks shot 31.8 percent from deep in the first half on 22 shots, forcing some bad ones in the process instead of trying something different. They ended the game 13-for-41 (31.7 percent) from three-point range and struggled overall, shooting 40.7 percent from the floor. Still, New York, who was down by as many as 14 points, staged a comeback in the second half and even took a brief lead before the 76ers took control for good. Part of that was thanks to the Knicks switching it up and attacking the rim more. They scored 24 points in the paint in the second half after just 10 in the first half -- basically the total opposite of Philadelphia."On top of that, we did a better job with our turnovers," Brown said, referring to the second half. "But more importantly, we reacted better when we turned the ball over and we had five turnovers for six points (against)."Regardless of the turnaround in the second half, Brown wants to see his team play like that for the entire game, not just in spurts or moments."Against a good team on the road, if you let go of those things in a half, you’re in trouble," he said. "And so somehow some way we have to be cognizant of doing this stuff for 48 minutes, which we’re not doing right now."Tonight it was the first half and it was almost like [we thought] we’re just gonna show up and go hoop and not do the little things that we need to do to go get a win."The Knicks are talented enough to go toe-to-toe with anybody and are fresh off an NBA championship, so they're allowed some slack for their 2-4 start, but if they have any intentions of repeating, they need to clean things up here and there before things possibly spiral and their head coach knows it."It’s a little thing here, a little thing there, a little thing there," Brown said. "… We’re competitive when we need to be and that’s why all of our games that we’re in we have a chance down the stretch, but trying to make sure we continue to do the little things throughout the course of the game is gonna be huge for us because we’re not doing it right now."