Mike Brown not ready to change Knicks starting lineup despite anger over slow starts

Mike Brown is ticked off by the starts but isn’t considering a lineup change. At least not yet. “Right now I don’t feel the need to,” Brown said Sunday after his team beat the shorthanded Warriors 110-107, but not before falling into a 21-point hole in the first quarter.“But like I said, if I felt the need to, I would.

I don’t feel the need to right now.” When fully healthy, the Knicks starting lineup has consistently included Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns. However, recent injuries to Hart, in particular, have thrown the lineup in flux.Landry Shamet has been the most reliable plug-in. Bridges, meanwhile, has struggled mightily and was benched again in the fourth quarter Sunday.

He logged just 21 minutes as Shamet and Jordan Clarkson soaked up a lot of the two-guard playing time. “It’s not too late to do anything.And if I feel the need, I will,” Brown said of a lineup change.

“I’m not thinking that right now.I’m not concentrating on each individual because, like you said, we’ve started different people at different times.” Brown said he’s disappointed in the starts in four of the last five games, including the entirety of their current three-game winning streak — all against subpar opponents. After Warriors coach Steve Kerr again campaigned Sunday for fewer games on the schedule, Hart agreed it would help the NBA product but doubted the relevant parties — meaning owners and players — would sacrifice money. “Do I think it will probably be better for the game and the quality on the court? I think so.

Do I think it will happen? Probably not because everybody is so money-hungry and money-driven,” Hart said.“I think everybody puts that above everything else.” Kerr has been publicly pitching to reduce the schedule because of the rash of injuries, believing a lighter load would allow players to be more effective and available.

Sunday’s game became another example of a...