Mike Brown says the 2-4 Knicks are rebuilding their title chemistry from the ground up

The Knicks brought nearly their whole championship group back. Six games into the title defense, coach Mike Brown says that doesn't let them skip any steps. New York is 2-4, and Brown said Sunday that a team trying to repeat starts again at the bottom of the mountain, not at the top where it finished in June.

The New York Post reported that the trouble shows most on offense. The Knicks have turned the ball over too often, relied too heavily on isolation and haven't played off one another the way they did during the playoffs. Mikal Bridges said the team was at its sharpest at the end of last season, as it should have been. He added that the offseason gap means the group has to find its rhythm again, and he said he should be playing better himself.

Brown framed the slow start as necessary work. "If we can't get through our growing pains, we have no chance," he told the Post. He compared the second or third trip up to the first one: a team that has done it before may climb faster, but it still has to take every step. The Post also noted that Brown likes to try new things during the regular season, so the Knicks may stay a work in progress for a while. That matches last season, when New York opened 2-3. All year, people questioned whether Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson were actually playing together or just trading possessions, and then everything came together in the spring.

What it means for Monday against Brooklyn

The record looks worse than the scores. The Knicks have scored 642 points and allowed 646 in six games, a total gap of four points. All four losses were by single digits: 100-106 against Philadelphia in the opener, 103-107 at Boston, 102-111 at home against Orlando and 93-98 in Philadelphia on the latest trip. The offense was at its best in back-to-back wins, 111-97 over Detroit and 133-127 at Chicago. New York is 1-2 at home and 1-2 on the road. The 93 points in Philadelphia were its lowest total of the season, which is the stagnation Brown and Bridges described.

The Nets visit Madison Square Garden at 7:30 p.m. Monday, and the market expects a lopsided game. On this site's board, New York is favored at -809 on the moneyline at Novig, with Brooklyn at +733. Novig has the Knicks favored by 14.5 points at -108 and the Nets +14.5 at +102. The best Brooklyn number anywhere is +15 at Pinnacle, priced at -112, so the venues are half a point apart on the spread. Novig's total is 221.5, with the over at even money and the under at -102. theScore Bet has the highest under, 222.5 at -115, a one-point spread across the 12 venues. Sportsbook hold ranges from 2.8% to 5.0% depending on the market.

The market expects the Knicks to win, and the margin is the open question. A team that has been averaging 107 points and struggling to move the ball is giving more than two touchdowns. Brown and Bridges have both said the fix is gradual. A comfortable home win over Brooklyn would be the first real sign that the team is getting its rhythm back.