Mike Brown yearns for adversity as Knicks sit 0-3 in preseason

NEW YORK — Oct. 14, 2026 — The defending champion Knicks are 0-3 in the preseason and have been outscored by 43 points. Mike Brown is not treating that as a crisis. He is treating it as practice for the stretch of the season he says he actually wants to see.

“I want to see how we react when we lose three in a row or four in a row,” Brown said, in comments highlighted by Yahoo Sports’ Arion Armeniakos. “And [the media] is on us, and the fans are on us. Let’s see if we can keep trying to [have an upward trajectory] in tough times.”

He yearns for the hard stretch early

That stance is not new for Brown. At media day he told reporters the Knicks would hit adversity and “embrace it,” and went further: “A lot of people tend to shy away from adversity, especially early on because you get scrutinized. I actually yearn for it. I yearn for it early because I want to make sure we as a group can handle it.”

New York knows what that look can become. Last season the Knicks lost nine of 11, including a fourth straight defeat to Dallas on Jan. 19, before flipping into an eight-game win streak and finishing the year on a 28-11 run that set up a 16-3 postseason and the franchise’s first title in 53 years. Brown wants that same response ready before the banner night on Oct. 20 against the Philadelphia 76ers.

A ‘real generic’ offense on purpose

After Monday’s 122-104 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves at Madison Square Garden, Brown made clear the scoreboard is not the test he is running. “For me, it’s more about the process, not necessarily the end result,” he said in his postgame availability. He also admitted he is intentionally making life harder for his own group.

“The truth of the matter is I’m kind of hamstringing our guys offensively,” Brown said. “Real generic with what we’re running offensively because I want to see if they can execute when a team gets rhythm and they start denying or putting pressure on us because they know what’s coming. Can we execute our counters? Can we still get to our spots offensively and execute our actions? Can we play fast doing it? Those are little things I’m looking at offensively.”

On defense he asked whether the Knicks were playing with “next-play speed.” He thought they mostly were, while conceding assignment breakdowns that film and drilling can clean up. Against Minnesota those details showed up as 19 turnovers that became 24 points and a first half in which the Timberwolves were 63 percent from three before Brown showed his starters the closing stretch at halftime.

Two tune-ups left before the banner

The Knicks still had two preseason dates with Toronto left on the calendar after the Minnesota loss, including a back-to-back in which Brown planned to sit starters for one half. Extension talks involving Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart remain another off-court subplot, but Brown’s public message has stayed on process: keep the standard, do not slip, and treat early pressure as something to lean into rather than avoid.

More on WhyNBA: Timberwolves 122, Knicks 104 and Thursday’s Raptors-Knicks rematch.