CHARLOTTE — At least until OG Anunoby comes back, it sounds like Mike Brown is rolling with his small-ball starters.
That group, which includes Miles McBride and Josh Hart, felt like a success in the last two games, both easy victories over the Nets and Hornets.
It also means Mitchell Robinson, whose injury history and load management program renders him unreliable, is coming off the bench.
“[I’ll] continue to stay with it to see what direction it goes,” Brown said. “Everything is fluid in this business. Anything can happen at any time.”
The lineup of Jalen Brunson, McBride, Mikal Bridges, Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns breeds familiarity and chemistry since the players, other than Towns, have a multi-year history of being teammates.
It’s also probably the fastest and most offensively talented lineup without Anunoby, who is scheduled for a re-evaluation Sunday on his strained hamstring.
“I feel like when we have a faster lineup out there we just get the pace going, we get stops,” McBride said. “We have guys that want to guard, get stops and then get up the floor. And then we’re just good with sharing it. When KAT’s going we’re looking for KAT. Obviously JB, he’s dominant. And then we all just feed off that.”
Added Brunson, “There’s obviously chemistry there.”
Brown said he settled on this lineup after sifting through his mistakes, adjusting via trial and error.
One error, he acknowledged Wednesday night, was leaving Josh Hart on the bench for consecutive fourth quarters earlier this month.
Hart has been playing more minutes lately and, not coincidentally, has been playing better.
“I’ll be the first to say that wasn’t the right thing to do [to bench Hart in fourth quarters] because he does so many great things for us and our group and our coaching staff,” Brown said. “And obviously as time has gone on, we’ve gotten a better feel for how we’re going to play him and he’s got a better feel, too. But back then he obviously could’ve b–ched or complained or threw a fit. He didn’t.
“ And he continued to believe in the process. Even though what I was doing was wrong at the time.”
Mikal Bridges collected his second Defensive Player of the Game after Wednesday’s blowout win over the Hornets.
It’s an award handed out by the coaching staff after every victory, whether on the road or at home.
Here’s a breakdown of the 11 DPOG winners for the Knicks:
Anunoby (2x), Hart (3x), Bridges (2x), Robinson (1x), McBride (1x), Landry Shamet (1x) and Jordan Clarkson (1x).
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
