3 Things We Learned in the Knicks' Third Game

The New York Knicks lost to the Orlando Magic Sunday—an upset, but not breaking news. The Magic won 45 games a year ago despite extended injury absences for Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs, then took the Pistons to seven games even with Wagner missing the last three. They’re a tough team that can win on the road. We already knew that.

But there were a few things we learned from the game. 

The 2027 Knicks are not the 2026 Knicks

Entering the fourth quarter, the Magic had been trailing the entire game and the 6-foot-10 Wagner had taken just one shot at the rim. Then, as his shot chart that period shows, everything changed.

Wagner sliced through the defense repeatedly on drives from 20-plus feet out. Twice in the fourth on inbounds plays he simply ran right past his man and went in for an easy lay-in. 

A lot of talk about why the Knicks are a shoo-in to at least compete for a repeat is their continuity. They’re basically the same team that they were last year, only losing one rotation regular. The problem is that regular’s strengths included one no one else on the team has, making it irregular and invaluable. A near-perfect replica of a Concorde jet that’s missing only a wing isn’t gonna fly right.

When the Knicks let Mitchell Robinson leave, they lost their only shotblocker. Karl-Anthony Towns reached a different level defending during the playoffs, and Andre Drummond is eighth in blocks among active players. But Towns isn’t an 82-game locked-in paint protector, and even with the addition of Drummond the 2027 Knick who had the most blocked shots in 2026 isn’t either center. It’s Mikal Bridges. This year no Knick has more blocks than Jalen Brunson.

That has to change. The sooner the better.

The mentality champs need a new focus

No one can question the mental strength and focus of the Knicks, not just last year but ever since Brunson arrived. They don’t shoot well every night, and they might get more bothered by the refs than you’d like, but effort and intensity aren’t in question. Three games in, there are questions.

There were the repeated failures to track Wagner on inbounds passes, both coming as the Knicks were watching a 10-point fourth-quarter lead swing 19 points the other way. You don’t expect the Magic to outscore you by 27 from deep, and maybe slowing down Wagner – or not leaving Tristan Da Silva repeatedly open to make five threes – were efforts of execution and not effort.

But the Knicks struggled in similarly concerning ways to how they struggled in the first two games. Again with the missed free throws in a late-and-close contest; Brunson and Anunoby missed three in the final minute. The Magic bench – not Ruth and Gehrig and Combs and Lazzeri, but rather Da Silva and Black and Cain and Vucevic – outscored the Knick reserves 47-11. Orlando played like a team terrified of falling to 0-3. New York didn’t.

If there’s an upside to going down yet again, there’s no shortage of motivational material for Mike Brown to bring up as they try to avoid becoming the first Knick team to start 0-4 since Larry Brown's 2006 side. 

When is it time to cross the Mikal bridge?

Brown may not be an iconoclast, but he leans more in that direction than dogma. Last year he benched Josh Hart early in the season, realized it wasn’t working and went back to the original look. Benchings don’t have to be demotions and they certainly aren’t permanent. But sometimes they’re helpful as a kind of forced role-playing exercise. Sometimes we can’t see our way out of struggle until we see it—and ourselves—from a new perspective.

Bridges may have reached that point, and if not the Knicks may reach it soon with him. He (and they) know how big a role he plays on both ends, particularly come the playoffs. Quiet stretches are nothing new with him. But last night Bridges was playing like Frank Ntilikina, and that’s just not workable. 

Bridges is making just 22% of his shots on a third fewer attempts than last year. He hasn’t made a single three nor taken a single free throw. He has fewer rebounds than Brunson and as many assists as Drummond, and as many steals in 90 minutes as Tyler Kolek has in 15.

Last night Bridges played hot potato whenever a pass came his way. People sitting courtside with their heads buried in their phones were more involved in the offense. In the final minute he was forced to put up two desperation threes, and watching him take them you knew two things: they weren’t going in and he knew they weren’t.

Last year Brown started Miles McBride for a while, until Hart reclaimed his starting spot. Maybe a change-up would help Bridges change his results. It could also give McBride a chance at better looks, which hopefully gets him going and stays with him when he returns to the reserves. The bench needs a consistent shooter. The Knicks need a consistent Bridges.

Get Knicks On SI straight to your inbox: sign up for our free newsletter here.