Mike Brown has said it many times to his Knicks team and to the media this year about what he expects on the defensive end: physicality.

On Sunday night against the Toronto Raptors, Brown's side pushed around the Raptors and limited them to 22 points in the first quarter in a 116-94 win at Madison Square Garden. But it wasn't always up to the head coach's standards.

“To start the game, we were. And then it kinda tailed off a little bit,” Brown said about the Knicks’ physicality. “In the second half, our guys were really, really good being physical while trying to guard the basketball, while also trying to keep them off the glass.”

Josh Hart said it took some “discipline” to end up with the convincing win after a poor second quarter saw the visitors climb back into the contest. “We got a little lazy in certain points in the game, and they’re a good team; they made runs,” he said. “But we were kinda able to weather the storm.”

Despite the unevenness in their defense, the Knicks still held the Raptors, who entered the night averaging 118.4 points per game (13th best in the NBA), to just 94 points. The head coach said, that “speaks a lot about us defensively tonight.”

“Our physicality without fouling while getting back in transition was huge for us; they had two fastbreak points in the fourth quarter,” Brown said. “We also did a great job of getting after 50-50 balls; there were nine 50-50 balls, and we left with all nine of them.”

On the night, facing Brandon Ingram, it was Mikal Bridges tasked with being at the “point of attack” against the Raptors’ leading scorer. “We say it’s five guys guarding the basketball,” Brown said, noting that Bridges “did a helluva job.”

But it all comes down to the team aspect: “Our shifts were really good, our weak side was really good, and even in our ability to rear-view challenge shots at times was pretty good. Mikal gets a lot of credit, but I thought our team defense – which you need to have against great players like Ingram and [Scottie] Barnes and [Immanuel] Quickley – was pretty good.”

Ingram finished with 14 points (below his 21.9 average) on 4-for-11 shooting (2-for-5 from deep). Bridges was credited with two steals, two blocks, and was a plus-17 in 3 minutes.

Another player adding a physical element is guard Miles McBride, who has seen himself recently inserted into the starting lineup.

“He just brings a level of physicality to the table that is really irreplaceable when it comes to guarding the ball, especially when it comes to guys who receive a lot of pick-and-rolls,” Brown said of McBride. “His ability to get up into the ball and pressure the basketball and get over screens and pick-and-roll situations, while getting back in front of the ball, is second to none.”

McBride, who had two steals, five rebounds, and was a plus-18 in 35 minutes, said the improvement in the last four games (all wins) on the defensive end has been noticeable.

"I feel like we're communicating a lot better," McBride said about the defense. "Tonight, we had some bumps getting back in transition; they got out. But that's what they do really well, so give credit to them.

"But I feel like defensively, we just locked in a lot more."

Offensive rebounding ‘beautiful to see’

New York owned the offensive glass, pulling down 25 offensive rebounds, led by seven from Mitchell Robinson, who was the Knicks' defensive player of the game, and five from Hart.

“Our team does a fantastic job on the offensive glass,” Brown said. “That’s beautiful to see, 25 offensive rebounds for the 22 second-chance points, that’s who we are.

“We have to continue attacking the glass relentlessly so we can get second opportunities because it turns into points, a lot of points, for us.”

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