Matched up with the LA Clippers on Sunday, back-to-back wins weren’t in the cards for the New York Knicks, as they dropped this one, 129-115. 

The team that had Kawhi Leonard won. 

And the team that didn’t, well, they lost. 

On a more serious note, in a game where both sides played some of their best basketball this season, it was star power that pushed the LA Clippers over a young New York Knicks team. 

That’s right friends, a Western Conference contender had to leave it all on the court on Sunday against a team that Las Vegas predicted would win *checks notes* 22 games. And that surprising effort from New York can almost be entirely traced to how they started this one. 

RJ Barrett and Julius Randle both came out the gate looking for their shots early. Even in what the Clippers broadcasting team dubbed “a teeter-totter start,” there was a lot of great basketball being played by both offenses. The defensive effort however, was largely absent on each end. 

And knowing that their team was going to need a healthy amount of Mitchell Robinson to gain any sort of edge over the Clippers, they both worked to get him involved early on. 

Halfway through the quarter, things were still neck and neck, mostly because Patrick Patterson arose from the depths of his journeyman career to provide LA with some hot shooting. The 31-year-old veteran finished the first period with seven points on a perfect 3-3 shooting. 

Make any claims about the Knicks and their defense’s sustainability, but it’s hard to plan for that. Still, Randle and Barrett didn’t falter, resulting in a six-point lead for New York with two minutes to go in the first. 

RJ’s confidence has been a main talking point on all things Knicks for the last few weeks, and it’s hard to point out any better example than the first quarter of this game against LA. For a guy who was drawing G-League demands from fans at one point, things have certainly steadied. 

New York took the first quarter by just two points, thanks to staggering minutes for Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, and a whole lotta 3-pointers going in for the Clippers. Randle also played the full 12 minutes, though, finishing with 12 points, six rebounds, and two assists. 

Thibs rewarded his efforts with some time off to start the second quarter, substituting rookie Obi Toppin into a lineup featuring Immanuel Quickley, Austin Rivers, Alec Burks, and Taj Gibson. Even with the veteran big playing the five, Toppin would prove an odd man out on offense. 

But, as he has for a majority of his inaugural season, the 22-year-old made the most of his limited minutes by playing a strong part on the defensive end for New York. Quickley, the Knicks’ more notable rookie, got going on offense within minutes behind a signature floater. 

He and Burks proved a tough assignment for Paul George and the Clippers’ second unit. Quickley was up to 10 points by the 5:30 mark in the quarter. 

It wasn’t enough to stop Leonard, George, and a surprisingly continued effort from Patterson, but the Knicks walked into the break down just 66 to 65. Their being able to keep up with a fire hot Clippers offense bodes well for some day in the future when their own shots start falling consistently. 

LA walked into the half shooting 51% from the field and 47% from three, compared to New York’s 52% field goal percentage and 31% average from behind the arc. All that says is the Knickerbockers hit shots when they needed to, which, hey, often wins games. 

When you go into halftime down against a contender, no matter how much by, you can safely anticipate they’ll come out swinging — and swinging hard. Teams with title hopes don’t want to play their star guys any longer than they have to. The bigger the lead in the third, the better. 

I’m sure most of you will remember the later days of the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty where it had become a tradition for Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green to all sit in the fourth quarter. No one’s been able to replicate those efforts since, but they’re trying daily. 

So naturally the Clippers, whom most of you should know are threats to this year’s title, came out hunting for the knockout in the second half. But the Knicks responded. 

Two jumpers from George and a pair of free throws from Leonard put the west coast opponent up 73-65 within not even a minute of second half basketball. Thibs called a timeout. 

And whatever he said in that timeout, well I’d like to receive similar instruction one day when I’m hit as hard as the Knicks were to open the third quarter. Randle came out of the timeout and knocked down a three, which was followed up by a dunk from Mitch on the next play. 

Some solid defense and more makes from guys like Barrett, Randle, and even Elfrid Payton from deep held New York above water by the halfway point of the third. The aforementioned anomaly shot made by Knicks’ fans least favorite player put the score at 79-77 Clippers. 

Then Reggie Jackson happened. LA’s point guard went on to score eight points in the next minute and a half, with six of those coming on ridiculous looks from behind the arc. So, Thibs and the Knicks responded, putting in Quickley, Burks, Rivers, and Taj to close out the third.

Thanks to New York’s rookie point guard and some back-and-forth play from Rivers, New York walked into the fourth quarter down just 10, and well within reach of a comeback victory. 

Sadly, it wasn’t in the cards. And the Clippers made sure to enforce that idea swiftly. 

Quickley kept his momentum from the third quarter going, as we’ve seen him do so many times in the last few games, but it wasn’t enough to overpower the LA offense. The rookie guard put in many of his signature floaters, and a couple deep shots to get up to 21 points.  

Quickley’s floaters truly looked like an unstoppable form of offense, and also earned some respect from multi-time Sixth Man of the Year winner Lou Williams during a break. 

Leonard and George’s shot making, along with a notably and oddly-timed absence for RJ Barrett during a large part of the fourth sealed the deal on this one for the Knicks. 

But as our very own Prez tweeted near the end: “Knicks played their best game of the season and might hold a 10 point L , gotta just tip your cap.” The Clippers walked out of Madison Square Garden as the victors of a 129-115 effort, improving to 16 wins on the year. 

And New York, well they’ll drop to 9 wins and 12 losses, still exceeding preseason expectations. 

Notes

• Immanuel Quickley… man. There really isn’t much else to say about this kid. I doubt anyone anticipated we’d be watching him play at this level at this point in the season, if not in his rookie year, or potentially his entire career. He finished with 25 points, three rebounds, three assists, and a block in 27 minutes. There are a number of us that are actively campaigning for him to usurp Elfrid Payton as the starting point guard, but sometimes, even if it is broken to a degree, you don’t rush to fix it. Expect Thibs to let Quickley continue closing games, while simultaneously holding off on starting him.

• I’m not sure this was a good Mitchell Robinson game. But I’m also not confident that it was a bad one. He played nearly 30 minutes against a potential Hall-of-Famer in Serge Ibaka and quality young big in Ivica Zubac, closing the game with all of nine points, six rebounds, a block, and, most importantly, just two fouls. It feels like New York needs more from him. Whether it’s in the scoring department or an even larger impact off the glass. TBD.

• The Knicks finished Sunday’s game with just seven turnovers. For reference, in their near-blowout win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday, they had 13! And on the season they’re averaging 14. New York was firing efficiently, and on all cylinders.

• Fans didn’t much care for the change that returned Reggie Bullock to the starting lineup, but give credit where it’s due: he played some damn good defense in this one. I look directly to Paul George, who despite his 17 points, felt like less of a presence in this one than his status in the league would dictate. LA’s second star went just 7-16 from the field, 1-8 from deep, and made just one trip to the charity stripe. You can’t credit it all to Bullock, but I guarantee he played a large part in that.

• It was a DNP-coach’s decision outing for Kevin Knox. While that does set a certain gloom on today’s silver linings, I have to trust that other teams will be willing to take a flier on the 21-year-old shooting 39% from deep this year. Maybe he’ll join fellow outcast Dennis Smith Jr. in the G-League bubble to maximize the rest of his season.

• It’s clear at this point that the Knicks’ front office and coaching staff aren’t exactly prioritizing Obi Toppin’s development. But guess what, friends? That’s a luxury that winning teams (or whatever it is New York is doing right now) get to enjoy. Instead of thrusting him into the flames, the Knicks are able to allow Toppin to learn on his own time, at his own pace, and in situations that haven’t been available to the more recent rookies drafted into the orange and blue. His two points and one rebound won’t say much, but Toppin got to play almost 13 minutes against LA on Sunday, and had some nice moments that won’t show up on any stat sheet.

• RJ is getting better every game. Any time he goes up against a guy like Kawhi Leonard in one-on-ones, it’s a measuring stick opportunity to see how far he’s come. Barrett played some great defense on Leonard the entire game, and he had himself a strong outing on offense once again: 23 points on 9-14 shooting from the field. It’s starting to feel safe not questioning if this is who he is, but rather asking who he’ll be when all is said and done in his NBA career. New York’s got two legitimate All-Star talents in Barrett and Randle, even if it’s not recognized on this year’s ballot.

Say it with me friends: this is the best the New York Knicks have played all season. I’d go as far as to say that the team got everything out of this game except for the win itself. 

Fans can be mad with the outcome, sure; losing will always suck. But this team is losing competitive games in a strictly competitive fashion. That much has been hard to come by any more than a handful of times over any individual season in recent memory.