New York Knicks: 3 takeaways from the first two weeks of the new season

2. The Knicks are showing that they can hang in there

This season, the Knicks are not expected to contend for an NBA championship or even make the playoffs. But one factor they have shown through their first four games is toughness.

Before the season began, Marcus Morris Sr. made a bold statement and let us all know what kind of team the Knicks will be:

"“Old school Knicks. Protect the Garden. My biggest thing is no one’s coming in there and disrespecting us,” Morris said Thursday. “If anything, if you come in here you’re going to get a hard-fought game. The better team going to win but we’re not tolerating no disrespect and no one coming in here thinking it’s going to be easy. That’s the first and foremost.”"

Adopting an old school mentality is just what the Knicks need this season; to put the league on notice about their toughness. Unfortunately, the Knicks haven’t been able to translate their toughness into wins during the first fifteen days of the season.

While the Knicks lost three of their first four games of the season, they were against playoff-bound teams. Only one of those games ended in a blowout, as the Knicks fought hard in the other three contests until the end. Three out of the next four unfortunately ended in blowouts, which are  definitely concerning signs early on.

Even with Fizdale constantly shifting the rotation around, the Knicks have shown adaptability and maintained their level of toughness.

Their most impressive performance as a team besides their first win against the Chicago Bulls was their four-point loss to the Nets. Trailing by ten with six minutes left in the game, the Knicks crawled back and took a three-point lead late but couldn’t secure the win. That game began the real battle of New York, as both teams will try to gain superiority over the other as the best team in the city.