Larry Brown sees the bad shots, awful defense, poor decisions, and hears the boos from a lot of frustrated fans at Madison Square Garden.
"This is much more difficult right now than I ever imagined," the New York Knicks coach said on Thursday.
More than a quarter of the way through his first season in charge of his hometown team, the man who preaches doing things the right way is stuck with a bunch of players doing just about everything wrong.
PHOTO: AP
New York has lost four in a row, falling to a 6-15 record heading into Friday's game at Atlanta. Worse, after playing well during a recent trip out West, the Knicks haven't been competitive in two games since returning home.
"We're just not doing it," Brown said. "We're not matching the energy of our opponent. We're doing the same things we've done all year. We turn the ball over too much, don't make simple plays, and don't execute very well."
Never was that more evident than recently. In double-digit home losses to the Milwaukee Bucks and Orlando Magic, the Knicks committed 38 turnovers -- they rank last in the league in that category -- and left shooters wide open while struggling to defend pick-and-rolls. Milwaukee and Orlando combined for 23 3-pointers, many of them uncontested.
PHOTO: AP
"They had like miscommunication out there. They didn't help each other," Orlando's Hedo Turkoglu said after the Magic's 105-90 victory on Wednesday.
"I think they have a bunch of young guys there and they're still learning, so that's why they messed it up. You can't leave guys who are making shots in a row like that, you have to do something."
Brown isn't the only New Yorker tired of the lapses. The Knicks were booed during both games, especially in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's loss.
"I don't tune them out at all," Brown said. "I hear it all. I'm embarrassed. I know how much they love basketball and love this team and want us to do well. And when we play poorly, I hear it, and it kills me because I'm responsible."
Brown, a New York native, knew things weren't going to be easy. While the Detroit team he coached to the last two NBA Finals was a veteran club, the Knicks have mostly young players on a mismatched roster that went 33-49 last season.
But he was expecting more veteran help. Instead, he watched Allan Houston retire during training camp. And the Knicks traded Tim Thomas, previously coached by Brown, before the season started.
Combined with injuries to newcomers Eddy Curry and Jerome James, that has left Brown forced to experiment with combinations featuring younger players. He has already used 15 different starting lineups.
The inexperience is showing on both ends of the court.
"I've seen turnovers that they're trying to make the right play," Brown said.
"We had two or three dump-down passes that were good passes that we didn't catch. To me, that's a guy trying to make the right play.
A banged-up LeBron James scored 26 points and got enough help from his teammates to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers past the Denver Nuggets 94-85 on Thursday.
James bruised his left shin and hobbled to the locker room with 29 seconds left in the first half. He came back with the shin wrapped for support.
He also got support from Damon Jones and Donyell Marshall.
Jones scored 17 points and Marshall 11. Both hit big 3-pointers as the Cavaliers ended a three-game losing streak.
Carmelo Anthony, coming off a career-high 42 points in a win over Charlotte on Tuesday night, scored 23 to lead Denver but shot just 8-of-23. The Nuggets played without Marcus Camby, inactive with a sprained right pinkie finger.
James, who had nine assists, ended a stretch of six games with 30 or more points. That could be good news for the Cavaliers, who went 1-5 with James carrying the load during that stretch.
Spurs 90, Timberwolves 88
At Minneapolis, Michael Finley scored 21 points, including the last six for San Antonio, to help the Spurs hold off Minnesota.
Kevin Garnett got the best of Tim Duncan with 24 points and a season-high 21 rebounds, but the Timberwolves dropped their third straight game when Troy Hudson's off-balance, running jumper in traffic at the buzzer fell short.
Duncan had 13 points and nine rebounds, missing four of his seven free-throw attempts. He was 5-for-20 from the foul line in his previous two games.
The Spurs, who improved to 18-4, are 16-0 when they shoot 45 percent or better from the field.
Rockets 104, SuperSonics 98
At Seattle, Tracy McGrady took over down the stretch, scoring 14 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter, and Houston won its fifth straight by beating Seattle.
A night after playing nearly 46 minutes in an overtime win at Golden State, McGrady played all but 18 seconds as the Rockets improved to 4-0 on their six-game road trip. It was Houston's first win after going 0-4 in the second game of a back-to-back.
Yao Ming added 26 points and 10 rebounds, making 12 of 15 free throws. He hit his first four shots and was 7-for-10 from the field.
Ray Allen led Seattle with 30 points, but couldn't match McGrady in the closing moments as Seattle lost its fourth straight at home.
Ron Artest's trade request will cost him US$10,000, and the NBA also fined the LA Lakers US$25,000 for coach Phil Jackson's comments about Toronto forward Chris Bosh.
Artest was penalized for "making public statements detrimental to the NBA." He expressed his desire to be traded from the Indiana Pacers in a Dec. 11 story in the Indianapolis Star, and said he wanted to play for either the Knicks or the Cavaliers.
"Public trade demands by players was a subject discussed at length during collective bargaining negotiations this summer," senior vice president and general counsel Rick Buchanan said in a statement. "The damage caused by these kinds of statements was commonly understood, as was the NBA's intention to hold players accountable for such statements going forward."
Artest is currently inactive while the Pacers seek to trade him.
The NBA said Jackson violated the league's anti-tampering rule with his comments about the Lakers' interest in Bosh when the team was in Toronto to play the Raptors on Dec. 8.
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