Love or hate the teams he coached, Chuck Daly was onto something when he said defense wins championships. Not every team needs to play like the Bad Boys of the 1980s, but the New York Knicks realize how true Daly’s famous adage is.
30 games into the 2016-17 NBA regular season, the Knicks are realizing just how important it is to improve on defense.
New York is two games above .500 at 16-14, but it’s achieved that record in spite of its defense. Those issues were to much to overcome on Christmas Day, however, when the Knicks suffered a 119-114 loss to the Boston Celtics on national television.