Knicks drop to 0-3 after 111-102 loss to Magic

Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News on Oct 25, 2026

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NEW YORK — The last time an NBA team lost its first three games to start its first season as reigning champions, they were swept out of the first round of the playoffs and finished just a handful of games over .500.

Fourteen years later, the New York Knicks find themselves in the wrong kind of rare company.

After winning the franchise’s first NBA title in 53 years, the Knicks are in a miserable skid to start their first season as reigning champions.

Sunday’s 111-102 loss to the Orlando Magic dropped the Knicks to an 0-3 record following their pair of season-opening losses to the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics. It’s the first time a reigning NBA champion has started a season 0-3 since the Dallas Mavericks won it all in 2012 then lost the first three games of the ensuing lockout-shortened season.

After Friday’s loss in Boston, the Knicks joined the 2003 Los Angeles Lakers as the latest NBA champion to lose their first two games of the following season.

On Sunday, things took a turn for the worst against a shorthanded Magic team without franchise player Paolo Banchero. The Magic also lost starting point guard Jalen Suggs to an apparent knee injury late in the fourth quarter.

Jalen Brunson finished with 28 points but shot 12 of 28 from the field, 1 of 7 from 3-point range and 3 of 6 from the foul line, including a pair of misses at the foul line late in regulation. Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby each added 22 points.

The Knicks got just 11 points from their bench in a game Jose Alvarado sat with a sprained ankle: four points in seven minutes from Andre Drummond, six points in 22 minutes from Landry Shamet, and one point from Miles McBride.

Drummond and James Wiseman each played seven minutes, and Wiseman missed all five of his shot attempts but finished with one block.

“The first thing that I wanna make clear is we have our starting five. Other than that, anybody can play. When you’re a backup in this league, that doesn’t mean you’re always gonna be the seventh man, or you’re always gonna be the eighth man. No, no, no, no, no, no. It’s competitive,” head coach Mike Brown said ahead of tipoff on Sunday.

“And it’s less so with the starting group if your starting group is established, which ours is, but everybody else after that starting five, I can throw in front of the next guy in a heartbeat. All of the things listed as our standard, because everybody ought into it, will make sure that everybody embraces it, not just accepts it. And so, I went with him just to change it up.”

The Magic bench answered with 47 of their own, including 18 from Anthony Black and 19 from Tristan da Silva. Franz Wagner entered the fourth quarter with two points and finished the game with 23 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists on 9-of-23 shooting from the field, and Desmond Bane added 22 points on 4-of-9 shooting from downtown.

The Knicks host the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday in the first leg of a home-road back-to-back before traveling to Chicago to face the Bulls on Wednesday.

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