The New York Knicks ended a 53-year championship drought in June when Jalen Brunson hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy at the Alamodome after dropping 45 points in a series-clinching victory over the Spurs. The parade down Canyon of Heroes drew three million fans. The banner that went up at Madison Square Garden represented everything the franchise had chased since 1973.

Four months later, those same Knicks opened the 2026-27 season by losing three straight games and joining one of the NBA's most exclusive—and unwanted—clubs.

Rare Company for a Defending Champion

New York's 0-3 start made them only the third defending champion in NBA history to begin the following season winless through three games. The 2011-12 Dallas Mavericks and the 1969-70 Boston Celtics are the only other title holders to stumble out of the gate that badly, and neither of those teams came close to repeating.

The Knicks finally broke through with a win over the Detroit Pistons on October 27, but the damage to their early-season standing was already done. At 1-3, they sit in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference as November begins—a stunning reversal for a team that lost just three total postseason games on their way to the championship last spring.

Fourth-Quarter Collapse Defined the Losing Streak

The most troubling loss came against the Orlando Magic, when New York surrendered 40 points in the final 12 minutes. That kind of defensive breakdown is the exact opposite of what carried the Knicks through June. Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart were lauded for their clutch play and late-game composure during the Finals run, but that execution has evaporated in the early weeks of the new season.

Oddsmakers noticed. After opening as favorites to repeat, the Knicks have seen their championship odds lengthen significantly as bettors question whether the team that dominated last spring can regain that form. The slow start also raised concerns about whether New York's roster—largely unchanged from the title team—can sustain the intensity required to defend a championship over an 82-game regular season.

Historical Precedent Suggests Trouble Ahead

Neither the 2011-12 Mavericks nor the 1969-70 Celtics recovered from their 0-3 starts to make deep playoff runs. Dallas missed the postseason entirely that year, undone by roster turnover and an aging core. Boston limped into the playoffs as a lower seed and exited early. The lesson is clear: defending champions who start this poorly rarely find their footing in time to contend again.

For the Knicks, the challenge now is to avoid becoming the third cautionary tale. Brunson's scoring hasn't been the issue—he's averaging close to his Finals MVP numbers—but the defensive cohesion that defined New York's playoff run has been absent. Opponents are finding open looks late in games, and the Knicks' closing lineups have struggled to execute under pressure.

Can New York Right the Ship?

The Knicks have 78 games left to prove the 0-3 start was an aberration rather than a sign of a hangover season. The schedule doesn't ease up immediately, with matchups against playoff-caliber teams dominating the first month. If New York can't tighten up defensively and rediscover the late-game execution that made them champions, the 1-3 start could snowball into something worse.

For now, the Knicks remain in rare and uncomfortable company—defending champions who opened the season by losing, and losing badly. Whether they climb out of that hole or join the Mavericks and Celtics in the history books as title winners who couldn't repeat will define the next few months at Madison Square Garden.