Larry's press working

Awakens Knicks with tough love

BY MITCH LAWRENCE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Keep killin' 'em, Lar.
That should be the battle cry of every Knick fan who pines for the days when winning was the No. 1 priority at the Garden. In what looks like a classic case of cause and effect, Brown's acid tongue has helped jolt Stephen Marbury and Co. into winning two straight home games, with the chance to extend the streak to a season-high three today against the Sonics.

Even Marbury conceded that Brown's public criticism of him has something to do with his recent strong play. It doesn't mean he supports his methods.

"I don't agree with Coach saying things publicly in the newspaper," Marbury said after practice yesterday. "But every coach is different. That's probably his way to get a message to people. If I was Coach, I wouldn't do that."

But Marbury has been a different player since Brown unloaded on him following his one-man strike against Orlando on Dec. 28, when he took only seven shots and went scoreless from the field. In the three games since, Marbury has averaged 23.7 ppg on 47% shooting, with double-digit assist totals in all three games. In the first 27 games, he posted at least 10 assists only twice.

"It motivated me," said Marbury, who was also castigated by Brown for bucking the system during a West Coast trip in November. "Everybody is different as far as the way they motivate people. Coach's way of getting things done is getting on you. Coach wants to see who's gonna break. And you need to know who's going to break because when you get into crucial situations, you need to know that everybody is all in."

But this is a radical departure from Don Chaney and Lenny Wilkens, neither of whom flogged his players in public. Free of criticism, the Knicks sailed scot-free through four straight losing seasons. Consequently, the perception was that the franchise didn't care about winning and that the most important thing during the worst stretch of basketball since the '80s was presenting a united front.

As the two recent victories suggest, there is something to be said for holding players accountable when a coach of Brown's stature is doing the criticizing.

"I got it first in the Olympics, so I understood it," said Marbury, who ran afoul of Brown in Athens two summers ago. "It's difficult. It's definitely a challenge because he's not letting up. He's not letting up at all. He's going to continue to push you."

Besides pushing Marbury to get to play his kind of way, Brown lately has been after Trevor Ariza and Nate Robinson to play smarter. After calling Ariza "delusional" because the second-year forward claimed he didn't know why he had been benched, Ariza came out with a strong game against Washington. Meanwhile, Robinson was scolded by Brown for throwing more passes to the Wizards than to his own teammates.

"It looks like guys really respond to the challenge," said Jamal Crawford, who hopes to play today at the Garden after sitting out Friday with an ankle injury. "That's a credit to him. He's a great coach. He knows how to get the most out of people."

So who is Brown's current target? No one, as he opted yesterday not to talk to the media.