The New York Knicks' struggles in January reached a breaking point on Monday night, and captain Jalen Brunson wasn't willing to let things slide.
After a tough home loss to the Dallas Mavericks, Brunson held a players-only meeting in the locker room.
It sends a clear message that the team's problems can no longer be blamed on anyone else.
Sources told ESPN that Brunson urged his teammates to stop looking for outside answers and instead take responsibility for their own play.
“He said guys, we've got to stop looking to the coaching staff for answers, we've got to stop looking elsewhere and the answers to our problems right now are in the locker room. We've got to look in the mirror,” ESPN's Ramona Shelburne said.
The meeting came after the Knicks' ninth loss in 11 games, a stretch in which the Knicks fell from one of the league's hottest starts to one of its most disappointing declines.
After starting the season 23-9 and winning the NBA Cup in December, the Knicks fell to 25-18 and had the fifth-worst offense in the league throughout January.
Frustration boiled over in Madison Square Garden, where fans booed loudly as the team trailed 75-45 at halftime. After the game, Brunson made it clear that even if the results changed, the standards didn't.
“As a team, we know what we have to do. Either we do it, we care enough to do it, or we don't do it,” Brunson told reporters.
A similarly blunt assessment was echoed by Josh Hart, who did not sugarcoat his team's recent performance when speaking after the loss.
“We all need to do some soul-searching,” Hart said. “We're playing awkward basketball right now. We're not executing offensively. Defensively, we're terrible. Our defense has been terrible all year.”
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