Daily Report – 1/1/26
Happy New Year!
Rangers
I suppose the Rangers were already lounging on South Beach, because they didn’t put up much of a fight yesterday in our nation’s capital, falling to the Capitals 6-3. Washington currently holds the first Eastern Conference Wild Card position, while the Rangers sit three points out of a playoff spot.
After never receiving the call to join Team USA in the upcoming Olympic Games, which feels like a snub, Adam Fox returned to the Rangers lineup. After starting this season as a point-per-game defenseman, Fox missed 14 games with an injury, which didn’t help his Olympic chances. Nevertheless, with a goal and an assist, he made his mark on the game, but it was far from enough to help his struggling team win.
“Playing, not playing, you’re looking at the standings every day and how tight it is,” Fox said. “These division games are massive, so, obviously, I’m trying to come back and make an impact.”
Injuries plagued the Blueshirts yesterday as Noah Laba and Conor Sheary each left the second period. That helped Tom Wilson net a three-point game, including his first goals in 17 career games against Jonathan Quick. After being named to Team Canada’s Olympic roster, Wilson injured Noah Laba and secured a Gordie Howe hat trick. It wasn’t the first time Wilson tortured the Rangers, and it won’t be the last.
Seven minutes into the second period, with the game tied at one, Wilson shoved Noah Laba into the boards on a zone entry. Laba couldn’t get up, and in the middle of a Rangers line change, Washington gained a four-on-two advantage against Braden Schneider and Will Borgen in the attacking zone, helping Wilson score.
Laba never returned to the game and was diagnosed with an upper-body injury. Conor Sheary left the second period a few minutes later with a lower-body issue (he has since been moved to LTIR), following Justin Sourdif’s power play goal that made it 3-1 Washington. The Rangers were one second away from killing Sam Carrick’s roughing penalty before Sourdif knocked a rebound past Quick.
Carrick was assessed a minor roughing penalty for the antics required to instigate a fight against Tom Wilson. The Rangers’ fourth-line center had to retaliate after Wilson forced his rookie teammate out of the game. Despite Carrick’s efforts in a size mismatch against Wilson, the Rangers did respond well. They failed to raise their level of physical play.
The Rangers cut the deficit to a single goal before the second period concluded, as Adam Fox took a no-look pass from Mika Zibanejad at the high slot and fired it via a hard slap shot from over Charlie Lindgren’s glove for a power play tally.
“I think it might be the hardest shot I’ve ever seen him take,” said head coach Mike Sullivan. “It was a bomb. Nice play by Mika. Good play all around. We’ve been trying to encourage [Fox] to establish that shot from the top of the power play.”
However, in the third period, Aliaksei Protas and Wilson each scored to put Washington up 4-2. Braden Schneider somehow slid one past Lindgren in the final two minutes to give the Rangers a small chance, but with their net empty, Justin Sourdif put the game away.
“There were some things we can do better and some things we can build on,” said Zibanejad. “But at the end of the day, it was another loss. We have to find a way to just stop the bleeding and get a win. [We have] an opportunity in the outdoor game on a big stage.”
The Rangers are 5-0-0 all-time outdoors. Sitting two points behind Florida in the Eastern Conference standings only makes the Winter Classic more intriguing. I’ll release a special report tonight previewing the 2026 Winter Classic, along with live coverage of the event from Miami tomorrow right here: https://x.com/agm605.
Knicks
The San Antonio Spurs avenged their NBA Cup loss last night by out-Knicking the Knicks in crunch time to win 134-132. The Knicks suffered a late collapse, uncharacteristically, in this New Year’s Eve bash, despite Victor Wembanyama leaving the fourth quarter 10.5 minutes early with a knee injury. Each team entered the game with a 23-9 record, but it was the Knicks who dropped the proverbial ball while the real one fell in Times Square.
The Knicks have struggled this season to generate early leads, but maintaining them hasn’t been an issue. Before yesterday, they were 19-0 when entering the fourth quarter with a lead. So, this game is an anomaly. A mere blip on the radar. However, because of the sky-high stakes of this season, every area of this Knicks team deserves to be criticized, especially when things go wrong.
First, the Knicks were without Josh Hart or Mitchell Robinson. Hart is close to returning from an injury, and Robinson was absent for load management purposes. That put Mohamed Diawara back in the starting lineup. However, given how talented the Knicks are, lacking Hart and Robinson does not translate into excusable defensive issues.
In other words, the Knicks have struggled defensively in their last umpteen games, and there is no excuse for it.
This time, the Knicks forgot about Julian Champagnie, who exploded for 36 points by going 11-for-17 from three-point range. Struggling to defend Wembanyama, who scored 31 points, is understandable, but Champagnie is a different story. Perhaps the Staten Island native felt a little extra motivation against his hometown team. But the Knicks’ poor long-range defense, which has been evident all season, is becoming a concern.
“I was a little disappointed in our guys because it was almost like we didn’t respect [Champagnie],” said head coach Mike Brown. “We didn’t pick him up in transition. […] I was really disappointed in the way we defended him.”
Where was Wingstop? The effective tandem of OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges couldn’t counter Champagnie beyond the arc. The Knicks scored 45 first-quarter points and led by as many as 19 points in this game. That’s the lead they blew, magnified in the fourth quarter, when San Antonio outscored them 41-30.
Mike Brown’s pace-oriented style of play clearly has holes, but his players must do their part to maintain the level of physicality required to establish a consistent pace. With so many tightly contested games this season that have required cinematic endings, it has become difficult to assess the success of Brown’s defensive tactics.
Despite having the fourth-most wins in the league, the Knicks have the 16th-best defensive rating in the NBA, which is nothing to be proud of. Every team with more wins than the Knicks has a better defensive rating. Also, despite having the second-best offense in the NBA, the Knicks have the sixth-highest net rating. Meanwhile, they rank 24th in the league in pace.
It seems Brown’s style of play might not be working.
But pace, as a statistic, is not the most important thing for these Knicks. It’s defensive improvements that matter most. At the end of the day, if this Knicks team doesn’t reach the NBA Finals, it’s going to become far too easy to reference the fact that last season, the Knicks had the 13th-best defensive rating in the NBA. Their current ranking of 16th place doesn’t exactly scream improvement, Coach Brown.
“[San Antonio] just outworked us in a lot of ways,” Brown said. “[The Spurs coach] kicked my ass. The rest of the team kicked our ass. We all got our ass kicked today.”
Jalen Brunson was limited to 29 points yesterday. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 20 points but was fouled out after 33 minutes. And OG Anunoby, the Knicks’ best defender, was a team-worst -25 on the court. The best contributors were Miles McBride and Jordan Clarkson, who scored 21 and 20 points off the bench, respectively. Tyler Kolek also helped off the bench, netting six assists and six points in 13 minutes.
But the abysmal numbers from the Knicks’ starters, especially Towns and Anunoby, made for a disastrous fourth quarter, especially in terms of defense and rebounding. Coupling losing Towns early with missing Robinson from the get-go might have been the worst of New York’s woes.
“First of all, it’s our physicality that wasn’t good,” said Brown. “We haven’t figured out how to be physical for 48 minutes in the last, I don’t know how many games, and doing it without fouling. We picked up some silly fouls that we have to do a better job of. I feel everybody understands that, but now, we have to go do it. So, now our physicality isn’t good, and we just haven’t been able to – I don’t know if we’re tired or what – we haven’t been able to sustain anything defensively for 48 minutes.
“At the end of the day, if we don’t figure out how we’re going to sustain what we’re supposed to do on defense for 48 minutes, it’s going to be a long year for us, and it’s going to catch up with us.”
Tomorrow, the Knicks will begin a weekend back-to-back set of home games against Atlanta and Philadelphia. They will then travel to Detroit on Monday to play the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons.
Schedule
Thursday 1/1:
4:00 PM: 2025-26 College Football Playoff (CFP), Third Quarterfinal – Rose Bowl Game – Alabama (9) vs. Indiana (1); ESPN, ESPN APP
8:00 PM: 2025-26 CFP, Fourth Quarterfinal – Allstate Sugar Bowl – Ole Miss (6) vs. Georgia (3); ESPN, ESPN APP
Friday 1/2:
7:30 PM: NYK vs. ATL; MSG, Gotham Sports
8:00 PM: 2026 NHL Discover Winter Classic (Live From MIAMI!) – NYR at FLA; TNT, TRUTV, HBO MAX
5:00 PM: Road to the NHL Winter Classic, Episode 1; TNT
5:30 PM: Road to the NHL Winter Classic, Episode 2; TNT
6:00 PM: Road to the NHL Winter Classic, Episode 3; TNT
6:30 PM: Road to the NHL Winter Classic, Episode 4; TNT
7:00 PM: NHL on TNT Face-Off, Live From the Winter Classic; TNT, TRUTV, HBO MAX
Saturday 1/3:
4:30 PM: NFL Primetime Saturday Night, Week 18 – Carolina Panthers (8-8) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-9); ESPN, ABC, ESPN APP
3:00 PM: Monday Night Countdown, Special Edition; ESPN, ABC
7:30 PM: NYK vs. PHI; MSG, Gotham Sports
8:00 PM: NFL Primetime Saturday Night, Week 18 – Seattle Seahawks (13-3) at San Francisco 49ers (12-4); ESPN, ABC, ESPN APP
7:30 PM: Monday Night Countdown, Special Edition; ESPN, ABC
Sunday 11/4:
1:00 PM: NFL on FOX, Week 18 – New York Giants (3-13) vs. Dallas Cowboys (7-8-1); FOX, FOX ONE
4:25 PM: NFL on CBS, Week 18 – New York Jets (3-13) at Buffalo Bills (11-5); CBS, Paramount+
8:20 PM: Sunday Night Football (SNF), Week 18 – Baltimore Ravens (8-8) at Pittsburgh Steelers (9-7); NBC, Peacock
7:00 PM: Football Night in America (FNIA); NBC
8:00 PM: Hyundai Sunday Night Kickoff; NBC, Peacock
8:10 PM: GEICO Sunday Night Anthem; NBC, Peacock
