Jalen Brunson is sounding the alarm in New York

Jalen Brunson THE Nixit’s a franchise other than the NBA. Madison Square Garden’s unique, sometimes excessive, fervor can carry a team…just as it can suffocate it when a machine goes wrong. And since the beginning of 2026, the pressure has increased in New York.

The final episode: an admitted loss at home to the Mavericks, with Madison Square Garden clearly not loving Mike Brown’s players. Another alarm, in a period that begins to feel urgent: the ninth defeat in eleven matches. Enough to warrant an alarm.

According to ESPN, Jalen Brunson therefore, he called for a closed meeting, just between the players, so that everyone could express themselves and “put their cards on the table”. The captain’s message would be clear: the problem does not come from the coach or the staff. And the solution will come through the locker room and everyone’s engagement.

First of all, the player’s responsibility

“We know what we have to do as a team. So we either do it, because we care, or we don’t.”Jalen Brunson said after the disappointment against Dallas, returning his teammates to their commitments.

With leaders like Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns, this locker room has the character and what it takes to turn the tide. But in New York, intentions are not enough: actions count. And the fans, for their part, will scrutinize defensive commitment and intensity as a priority from the next meeting, during a match in which there is never a shortage of salt, against Brooklyn tonight.

In the same state of mind as his friend Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart also hit the nail on the head, no filter: “We all have to do some introspection. We’re playing embarrassing basketball right now. We’re not efficient on offense. We’ve been disastrous on defense. We’ve been there all year defensively.”

			Shots			Rebounds
Players	MJ	Min	Shots	3pts	LF	Off	Def	That	Pd	Bp	Int	Ct	Ft	Pts
Jalen Brunson	38	34:28	47.8	38.6	85.4	0.5	2.6	3.2	6.1	2.3	0.7	0.1	2.4	28.1
Karl-Anthony Towns	40	32:20	46.7	35.8	85.9	3.0	8.6	11.6	3.0	2.7	0.9	0.7	3.7	21.0
Mikal Bridges	43	34:54	50.3	40.0	78.7	1.2	3.3	4.5	4.2	1.0	1.6	0.9	1.9	15.9
And the Anunobi	33	10:45 p.m	45.2	33.9	80.8	1.4	4.1	5.5	2.2	2.1	1.7	0.7	2.6	15.8
Miles Mcbride	32	28:19	43.9	43.1	86.5	0.7	1.9	2.6	2.7	0.8	0.8	0.2	1.8	13.1
Josh Hart	32	30:30	49.0	39.5	78.9	1.6	6.0	7.6	5.2	2.2	1.3	0.3	2.6	12.0
Jordan Clarkson	43	19:42	42.7	33.3	78.7	0.8	1.0	1.8	1.3	1.1	0.5	0.1	1.9	9.7
Landry Shamet	18	20:27	43.5	39.2	77.5	0.4	1.4	1.8	1.1	0.4	0.4	0.2	1.3	8.7
Mitchell Robinson	30	19:22	66.7	0	37.3	4.9	4.3	9.2	1.1	0.7	0.8	1.2	2.3	4.8
Tyler Kolek	38	13:24	42.9	32.4	66.7	0.3	1.6	1.9	2.8	1.0	0.4	0.1	1.4	4.8
Guerschon Yabusele	36	9:22	39.4	31.7	66.7	0.6	1.6	2.2	0.5	0.4	0.1	0.1	0.9	2.9
Kevin McCuller Jr	12	7:15	43.5	42.9	40.0	0.7	1.0	1.7	1.3	0.7	0.3	0.0	1.2	2.3
Mohammed Diawara	35	5:02	39.3	37.1	25.0	0.2	0.8	1.0	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.5	1.8
Ariel Hookporty	28	9:00 a.m	51.6	0.0	65.0	1.1	1.6	2.7	0.6	0.5	0.2	0.6	1.3	1.6
Trey Jemison III	6	6:20	100.0	0	100.0	0.8	0.8	1.7	0.2	0.5	0.0	0.3	1.0	1.2
Pacome Dadiet	17	3:00 am	22.2	0.0	100.0	0.1	0.6	0.6	0.4	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.2	0.5
Tosan Evbuomwan	5	1:36	0.0	0	0	0.2	0.2	0.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.0