Knicks coach Mike Brown again finds himself reveling in a long playoff win streak

It was April 23, or 6 1/2 weeks ago. The New York Knicks had just endured their second consecutive one-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks, and this one left them trailing 2-1 in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

Signs of trouble were everywhere.

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The mood in New York was abysmal.

Mike Brown’s future as coach was a hot topic.

“Stuff’s going to happen,” Brown, the Knicks coach in his first year, said that night in Atlanta. “Plenty of teams have been down 1-2. I even think Oklahoma City was down 1-2 last year and they ended up winning it. I’m not saying we’re going to win it or anything like that, but the reality of it is it’s seven games and you take one game at a time.”

The Knicks have played 13 games since. The results: win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win and win. One game at a time, one win at a time, and quite possibly, one championship at a time. The Knicks are back in New York with a 2-0 lead over San Antonio in the NBA Finals, still riding the strength of a 13-game winning streak.

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A streak like that has happened once before in NBA postseason history, when counting just single-season winning runs. Golden State won 15 in a row on its way to the 2017 title.

The common thread between those Warriors and these Knicks? That would be Brown. He was an assistant on that Golden State staff and went 12-0 as acting head coach during the playoffs while Steve Kerr was sidelined by back issues.

“You’ve got to have good players,” Brown said. “I’m not that smart. You’ve got to have good players that carry you.”

Brown’s playoff record, officially, is a stellar 64-42 as a head coach.

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Throw those 12 games with the Warriors on his record — which, by NBA rule and precedent, doesn’t happen because Kerr was still head coach, just not present on the sideline for those games — and Brown’s playoff winning percentage would rise to .644. That would be third best in NBA history among coaches with at least 100 playoff games, behind only Phil Jackson and Kerr.

Either way, Brown now has to be considered the coaching king of the playoff winning streak.

A look…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/knicks-coach-mike-brown-again-161346834.html

Author : TIM REYNOLDS

Publish date : 2026-06-06 16:13:00

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