Can Larry Brown really make that much of a difference?

With the Knicks’ new head coach watching from the audience instead of prowling the sidelines, the club quickly reverted to its old habits in Tuesday’s 114-99 exhibition pasting by Philadelphia. Just like old days, Herb Williams was the “interim” coach and the team played no defense whatsoever.

With 76ers stars Allen Iverson, Chris Webber, and Samuel Dalembert on the sidelines contemplating how to do “business casual,” New York allowed somebody named John Salmons to go to the free throw line 21 times and score 30 points. The Knicks trailed by 24 at the half before some late cosmetic scoring made things somewhat respectable.

This was a rather sharp turn of events, as it came on the heels of two fairly impressive preseason efforts with Brown on the sidelines. New York won its exhibition opener over the rival Nets and took mighty Dallas to the buzzer before falling. But the effort level that characterized the first two games evaporated almost immediately in Brown’s absence on Tuesday.

That’s not the first time this has happened either. Last year, Brown’s Pistons were quite ordinary when he was out of action, going 9-8 while their head coach was undergoing hip surgery and dealing with the subsequent complications.

In this case, Brown was absent by choice: He traditionally allows a top assistant to coach a preseason game (presumably to give him some on-the-job training in case Larry changes jobs halfway through the season). Unfortunately for the Knicks, this won’t be the last time Williams takes the tiller this year. Brown still has some problems related to last season’s surgery and is likely to miss several in-season games as a result. If Tuesday provided an example of how the Knicks will perform with a substitute teacher in the classroom, then Brown’s health could be more important than that of any of his players.

I know, I know: It’s only preseason. Jamison Brewer, for one example, played 20 minutes on Tuesday, and he might not even make the team. But on the other hand, Knicks starters saw significant action, and they were going against Philly’s scrubs. Jamal Crawford played 32 minutes on Tuesday, while Stephon Marbury played 24.

New York’s performance against Philly isn’t the only reason to be pessimistic about the defense. When Brown came to New York, the major question was if he could improve one of the league’s worst defensive teams. The Knicks finished a lowly 26th last season in Defensive Efficiency, my measure of how many points a team gives up per 100 possessions, and the lack of defensive talent on the roster is glaring. Marbury is mediocre at best, while Crawford and Curry are sieves whom Bulls coach Scott Skiles repeatedly skewered for poor efforts when they were in Chicago. Plus, New York’s three rookies can all expect to take their lumps on D, as virtually all first-year players do.

Based on early returns, Brown has yet to work his magic. Curry has been superb offensively, but he continues to loaf down the floor and get beaten for easy baskets. Despite spending $100 million on centers in the off-season, the Knicks have blocked only four shots in three games, mirroring their pathetic performance a year ago, when they were last in the league in that category. Of those blocks, half have come from Jackie Butler, who will be seeing a lot more of Fayetteville, N.C. in the next six months than he will of Gotham.

Of course, we should mention the good with the bad, and certainly there have been some positive developments coming out of the Knicks’ training camp. David Lee, for one, looks like a steal with the final pick of the first round. The lefty power forward has averaged nearly a point every two minutes in the three exhibitions, and he’d be doing even better if he wasn’t bricking so many foul shots (47.6%). However, Lee shot 71% from the stripe as a senior at Florida, so I doubt the free-throw inaccuracy is a permanent feature of his game. The other rookies, Channing Frye and Nate Robinson, have been equally productive, lending hope that Isiah Thomas’s one legitimate strength as a general manager – the draft – will continue to reap dividends.

And of course, Curry has been wondrous on offense, giving the Knicks their first legitimate post scoring threat in ages. He’s averaging a whopping 31.7 points per 40 minutes in the three games while hitting 66.7% from the floor. Imagine what he could do if he just got in shape.

Those positives more than offset a few mildly disappointing starts. Jerome James hasn’t played due to a strained hamstring, Marbury seems to be trying too hard to play “the right way,” and Maurice Taylor has seemed intent on proving why the Rockets traded him.

The best news of all, however, may be off the court. Forward Antonio Davis showed up at the Knicks’ training camp and is making noises as if he’ll be staying. Most observers thought the Knicks would waive Davis after he was acquired in the Curry deal, with some suggesting that it was a requirement by the Bulls in order to complete the trade. Davis was extremely reluctant to leave the Windy City and has taken his sweet time showing up, but Larry Brown appears to have convinced Davis, whom he coached in Indiana, to try New York.

If so, this significantly improves the shaky power forward rotation, where the Knicks had more quantity (Taylor, the turnover-prone Malik Rose, and rookie Lee) than quality. More important, Davis also gives New York a quality defender, a species that’s been seen in these parts about as often as pterodactyls.

And in the end, it’s that defense that will determine the Knicks’ success this season. New York had a pretty decent offensive team a year ago, and if Curry stays healthy they could be even better this year. But if they keep letting nobodies like John Salmons broil them for 30-point nights, none of that will matter. For the Knicks’ sake, let’s hope that Sixers game was an aberration and not indicative of what’s to come whenever Brown is off the sidelines this season.

Mr. Hollinger is the author of the 2005-06 Pro Basketball Forecast.