SACRAMENTO — Mike Brown referred to as out Karl-Anthony Cities for a lazy play.
With lower than two minutes remaining within the second quarter of the Knicks’ 112-101 loss to the Kings on Wednesday night time, Cities drove and fell after he was stripped within the paint by Valuable Achiuwa.
The Knicks middle stayed on the bottom as a substitute of operating again on protection, which allowed Achiuwa to seize an uncontested offensive rebound round midcourt.
The sequence ended with Sacramento’s Russell Westbrook nailing a large open nook 3-pointer to offer the Kings a 17-point lead.
“He drove. One thing occurred the place he fell down. He drove, he fell down,” Brown mentioned. “Whenever you fall down, you bought to stand up and bought to dash down the ground. And even once you’re the final man down the ground, you bought to get down there simply in case there’s a protracted rebound. However there was no urgency. That wasn’t the one play. There have been a handful of performs that we did that. However there was no sense of urgency on that exact play to get again. And it was a five-point swing.
“If he at the very least will get down the ground, lengthy rebound, he’s going to get it as a result of he’s trailing the play. We watched the play at halftime and he didn’t even cross halfcourt. That sums up what our night time was.”
The Knicks shot a depressing 20% on 3-pointers. However the locker room nearly unanimously pointed the blame elsewhere — protection was the issue.
“Offense is secondary to how sh** our protection was,” Josh Hart mentioned. “Gave up what, 40 free throws? Undisciplined. Didn’t lock in on the sport plan. It was a humiliation. Right now I actually don’t care in regards to the offense. Defensively we’ve bought to determine it out.”
The Kings (11-30), a lottery-bound crew, had 4 starters rating at the very least 18 factors.
Brown didn’t rule out Mitchell Robinson enjoying in his first back-to-back of the season.
Robinson, who’s load managing his surgically-repaired ankle, logged 19 minutes within the loss.
The Knicks are at Golden State on Thursday night time.
“I’m undecided on the finish of the day it’s going to be the medical crew’s selection,” Brown mentioned. “As we’ve gone alongside, his minutes have elevated and he’s been in a position to do extra issues in apply by way of their eyes. So no matter they inform us (Thursday night time), we’ll take heed to it.”
