It’s costly for a basketball team.
asserted
It → ’ → team
Chemistry must be rebuilt.
asserted
Chemistry → rebuild → ?
No steps can be skipped, regardless of how long a team has played together.
asserted
team → skip → ?
“You’re starting all over,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said after practice Sunday.
asserted
Brown → start → practice
“It’s like climbing a mountain.
asserted
It → ’ → mountain
We’re climbing a mountain as a team and we conquer the mountain, then you gotta come back down, take some time off, then you gotta climb another mountain.
asserted
you → climb → mountain
It’s the same thing.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
And when you climb that mountain the second time, you’re starting from base camp again.
asserted
you → climb → camp
And if you skip steps doing that, you’re going to die.
asserted
you → skip → that
It’s not that tragic for us.
asserted
It → ’ → us
When you’re sitting at 2-4, people equate it to that sometimes, but it’s the same thing, taking each step the right way and embracing it and trying to get a little better.
asserted
it → sit → it
The Knicks’ continuity from their championship team was supposed to be a major strength for their chances of repeating.
asserted
continuity → suppose → chances
This group clicked about as well as any group has ever clicked during the playoffs last year.
asserted
group → click → playoffs
Their togetherness and selflessness made them new fans across the country.
asserted
them → make → country
An ability to elevate each other on the court made them an incredibly well-functioning machine.
asserted
them → elevate → court
But with a 2-4 record through the first six games of the year, the Knicks have resembled a group that, as Brown said, is starting all over again — not one that is picking up where they left off last year.
asserted
they → resemble → group
It has looked like a group that is relearning each other despite the core knowing each other better than any in the league.
asserted
core → look → league
That’s the tricky part about chemistry — it needs to be reestablished and reinforced, like a campfire that constantly needs to be tended to.
asserted
that → ’ → campfire
“Yeah, that’s why I think for us, we just gotta continue to grow,” Mikal Bridges said on Sunday.
asserted
Bridges → ’ → Sunday
“Last time we played was in June.
asserted
we → play → June
I think [we were] probably the most polished as a team we were at the end of the year, as we should be.
asserted
we → think → year
So, I know it’s tough to see last time we played to the beginning of the year, and obviously we should be better than we are, me personally.
asserted
we → know → year
But it takes time and just not skipping steps and just kinda going through the process and keep learning, get back in that rhythm.
asserted
it → take → rhythm
It was similar last year, when the Knicks started 2-3.
asserted
Knicks → start → ?
It’s hard to remember with how the season ended, but Karl-Anthony Towns’ involvement in the system — or lack thereof — was a recurring storyline.
asserted
involvement → ’ → system
There was ample criticism that he and Jalen Brunson were basically taking turns looking for their own shots rather than utilizing a two-man game and playing off each other.
asserted
he → be → other
Until, all of a sudden, it all clicked and the Knicks played their best basketball when it mattered most.
asserted
it → click → basketball
Brown likes to experiment in the regular season.
asserted
Brown → like → season
As they try new things this year, it means a return to that work-in-progress version of the Knicks.
asserted
it → try → Knicks
With the belief that as that chemistry re-forms, those championship results will return, too.
asserted
results → re → belief
“If we don’t go through our growing pains and we can’t get through our growing pains, for whatever reason — because we don’t want to go through it being that hard again or we think we know or whatever it may be — if we can’t get through our growing pains, we have no chance,” Brown said.
uncertain
Brown → go → chance
“It’s like anything you do in life.
asserted
you → ’ → life
When you complete something and you have to do it again, you’re not just starting right here [at the top] when you do it again.
asserted
you → complete → it
You’re starting here [at the bottom] and you’re building up.
asserted
you → start → bottom
And sometimes, your second or your third year doing it, you’re getting here [at the top] a little quicker.
asserted
you → do → top
But you still gotta go through all the necessary steps to get there.
asserted
you → got → steps
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