Clippers 105, Knicks 95: This ain’t no movie
There was no Hollywood ending, as the Knicks collapsed and lost — again. No reason to bug
First things first – relax.
Yes, the Knicks’ 105-95 loss to the Clippers (proud owners of their own treehouse after sharing with the Lakers for decades) was a tough pill to swallow. In their first game since Jalen Brunson’s heartwrenching ankle wrenching New York kept it close for three quarters, but when the lights were at their brightest in the fourth they faded and broke apart like a shooting star. And it wasn’t the usual suspects who put them away. James Harden and Kawhi Leonard mostly misfired down the stretch, yet the day was saved by Bogdan Bogdanović, Derrick Jones Jr. and the Knicks’ inability to grab a defensive rebound.
That last issue may have been less of one if Mitchell Robinson weren’t also a DNP, resting on the second night of a back-to-back as he ramps back up to game shape. Take away most team’s best perimeter offensive player and best interior defender and they’re likely to struggle. Losing your captain to a serious injury and having to play again less than 24 hours later in the same city only makes things harder. The Knicks suffered a sudden catastrophe and didn’t even have the benefit of changing cities and hopefully headspaces afterward; instead it was washed, rinse, repeat as they went 0-for-Angeles.
To be fair, and Josh Hart mentioned this afterward, the Knicks didn’t get to practice between games. Adjusting to life without Brunson was never going to be easy, but without practice time it’s like trying to learn rocket science written in a dead language. There were other developments I don’t understand, but I’m willing to give this team some time to adjust before casting judgments. For now, I cast curiosities.
When did Karl-Anthony Towns forget how to post up, or why did the Knicks decide to stop posting him? For weeks now it seems if KAT isn’t missing from deep – 29% on threes this month – he’s driving from behind the arc to the paint. A part of me will always miss Julius Randle; no part of me misses his endless kvetching after every miss. Towns has taken that mantle and made it his own, with the added twist of often going histrionic on missed drives that end with him drifting toward the baseline, giving the opponent a steady stream of 5-on-4s. Oddly, on a night Towns shot 7-of-14 against every Clipper who’s never staged a slowdown strike to force a trade, he missed six of the seven shots he tried against James Harden. LOL
Over the years I’ve been wrong about more things Knicks-related than a supercomputer could count. I hope to add this to the list someday, but for now I don’t understand why Tom Thibodeau replaced Brunson in the starting five with Deuce McBride. McBride is a 3-and-D combo guard whose height happens to be similar to many points guards. There is absolutely nothing in his game that suggests he’s a point guard. He doesn’t have the handle and isn’t much of a threat to create for himself or a teammate; on those rare occasions when he does get past his man, they usually recover before he’s halfway to the rim. Having him start means a clear downgrade in the starting lineup and a weakening of the bench, since McBride starting in an unfamiliar role means removing him from the role he’s been so highly successful in the past few seasons. He missed seven of his nine threes and all four of his twos. In the fourth quarter he and Cameron Payne were scoreless while the Knicks missed all seven of their longballs.
The following is less a critique of Josh Hart than a consideration of the bigger picture, especially in light of his career-high with 20 rebounds and team-high-tying six assists, but either he needs to be more aggressive looking for his shots – and going back at least to his Portland days, Hart has always been a player whose aggression as a shooter waxes and wanes – or the Knicks need to be mindful of what groups they stick him in. Again, they were shorthanded last night and haven’t had time to work in any adjustments; I understand that. It’s just the number of possessions where Hart had a wide-open look with 10-12 seconds on the shot clock, showed as little desire to push the envelope as a Congressional Democrat and the Knicks ended up with a trash look were slightly more frequent than the number of possessions featuring some Knick tossing a grenade to Hart with 3-4 seconds left on the clock and watching him try to turn gold into lead. Hart is a lot of things. Alchemist isn’t one of them.
I opened advising you to relax. Please join me in attempting to. For all the bad press about the Knicks’ record against the league’s big 3 teams, against everybody else they’ve played above a 60-win pace most of the season, a big reason why they have a bit of a buffer in the standings. They could be in a position where they don’t need Brunson to salvage their seeding, just to heal up as best as he can before the playoffs. Here’s why.
Milwaukee is three behind New York in the loss column and come to MSG late this month, but the Bucks have already lost the tiebreaker by virtue of already losing twice to the Knicks (the fifth-seeded Pacers also lose the tiebreaker against the Knicks). Once this road trip is over, the Knicks play a home game against Miami, then travel to San Antonio (no Victor Wembanyama) and Charlotte (no hope in general) before a homestand that kicks off with Washington (the league’s worst record) and Dallas (no Luka, no AD, no Kyrie and the league’s worst owners). In that same stretch Milwaukee faces Cleveland, Oklahoma City, the Lakers, Denver and Indiana twice. If the Knicks go 10-10 the rest of the way, the Bucks have to finish 15-6 to pass them. The Pacers would have to go 16-5. Not impossible. Not likely.
Still: for a whole host of reasons, best to nip this losing streak – now tied for a season-high at three, and yes you can re-read that and take some joy from it – in the bud ASAP. Until the Knicks win again, every game they play is sort of enormously important, for the vibes if not the standings. After a weekend off, they resume play in Sacramento, where the games are always wooly and wild and a resurgent Kings team post-Doug Christie and “Sac” LaVine’s arrivals is no joke. Brunson won’t play. Mitch likely will. As for the rest, wait and see, babes.
