Fed up after two consecutive poor preseason performances, Larry Brown issued a mandate yesterday that playing time this season will be dictated not by contract or reputation, but by smart play and sheer hustle, something these Knicks haven't shown yet.

After a 3 1/2-hour practice session in which the coach went over some of the most basic principles of the game, Brown said players who don't hustle back on defense or don't pass the ball will watch much of the game from the bench, and might not even start.

"A lot of (that) is gonna determine who's going to play," he said. "The guys who are committed to hustling back, making the extra pass, taking the good shot, are probably the ones who are gonna be out there in the guts of the game, or maybe at the beginning of the game."

Brown watched Tuesday night's debacle against the Sixers from a luxury box -- every year he allows his first assistant to coach a game, so Herb Williams was in charge -- and was not happy with what he saw as the Knicks were blown out by a team that didn't have Allen Iverson, Chris Webber or Samuel Dalembert.

"We lost to a summer-league team in a lot of ways without Allen and Samuel and Chris," he said. "It was not a pretty sight."

In other Knicks news Eddy Curry did not run yesterday because of a sore shoulder, an injury he suffered Tuesday night.