Brown finding it tough to coach Knicks

By BRIAN MAHONEY, AP Basketball Writer
December 15, 2005
GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) -- Larry Brown hears the boos, too.

Bad shots. Awful defense. Poor decisions. And a whole 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 Thursday after practice.

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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.

New York has lost four in a row, falling to 6-15 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 Milwaukee and Orlando, 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. The Bucks and Magic combined for 23 3-pointers, many of them uncontested.

"They had like miscommunication out there. They didn't help each other," Orlando's Hedo Turkoglu said after the Magic's 105-90 victory 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 Brooklyn 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 used already used 15 different starting lineups.

The inexperience is showing on both ends of the court.

"I don't even really have an answer for you," veteran guard Stephon Marbury said. "Right now, as far as for the way we're playing, we're going backwards, we're not going forward."

The turnovers are of the biggest concern to Brown. The Knicks are committing 18.1 per game -- some in ways Brown can't even explain.

"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.

"But then we have five or six turnovers where we're ahead on the break and throw it behind us, or we try to throw a crosscourt pass and it goes into the fifth row. I mean, there's things that I've never seen before."

The defensive struggles could be more costly. Players from the Bucks and Magic both pointed to Knicks' inability to stop the pick-and-roll.

According to Brown, his players knew what they were supposed to do.

"We gave up two 3-pointers in the second quarter on a play we went over," he said. "We left a guy that we said we weren't going to leave. So it's just execution."

Brown did say he was pleased with the progress of some of his younger players -- some he never expected to be playing so much. But he knows the Knicks' struggles could last a while.

"After these two last games, you look at the schedule, you don't think we'll ever be able to win another game," he said. "But you can only try."


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