3 Reasons The NY Knicks Can Return to Being a Top Defense

The NY Knicks can return to being a top defense in the NBA as they were last year and there are good reasons to believe that they can do so even after a slow start defensively this year.

On Monday, the Knicks showed they could clamp down on some of the NBA’s best offenses after a terribly disappointing 112-110 loss to the Brooklyn Nets.

Kevin Durant struggled throughout the game, going 9/23 from the field, including 0/5 on three.

Everyone knows that KD scores as efficiently as any player in history, so forcing him to a game this inefficient is something to note.

The Nets rank second in three-point percentage at 37.8% as this is being written. The Knicks held Brooklyn to shooting 8/28 from deep, which is 28%.

Can the NY Knicks return to their dominant defensive roots?

The Nets are a dynamic offensive team, and the Knicks used their defense to stick with them.

That was easily the best that New York has looked all year defensively when going up against a true finals contender.

There are reasons to believe things could keep up defensively for the Knicks. It’s not like they are some completely different team from last year.

If you look at the Knicks roster, very few guys are poor defenders, and most starting lineups in the NBA have at least one poor defender on it.

All signs point to the Knicks being able to get back to being a top defensive team in the NBA.

They need to put in the same energy as last year and not get complacent, which I discussed earlier this year in an article.

Suppose the Knicks can put the same defensive effort in as last year and Coach Thibodeau can get rotations correct for defense.

In that case, there’s no reason why New York can’t get back to allowing the least points per game.

There are multiple reasons why the Knicks can totally be the same defensive team as last year, even if they lost a plus defender in their lineup like Reggie Bullock.

Here are some of those reasons.