Against a LaMelo Ball-less Charlotte Hornets team, the New York Knicks opened the first leg of their back-to-back home slate with a 97-87 loss.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day featured a 13-game slate across the NBA, and in each of those matchups, none of the 25 other teams scored fewer points than the New York Knicks.

This isn’t going to be a game recap that makes you feel all warm inside, instilling dreams of a second straight playoff berth or end-of-season achievements to come.  

Because, frankly, the product put on Madison Square Garden’s hardwood yesterday was nothing short of an embarrassment. Where do we begin?

How about pregame, when word came down the pipeline of LaMelo Ball’s non-COVID illness, threatening his availability for this Eastern Conference matchup:

Not only is Ball the Hornets’ best player, but there’s an argument (especially after yesterday’s performance) that the reigning Rookie of the Year is the top talent among both teams.

Entering Monday’s game against New York, Charlotte was 3-3 without him this season, and 13-14 without him dating back to last year, his inaugural season in the NBA. 

When the starting five announcements came, Ball was predictably absent, but the team and media members remained unwilling to rule him out of the game altogether. Then shortly before tip-off, it was announced that the 22-year old was indeed available.

But it wouldn’t matter.

Charlotte’s initial intentions of giving LaMelo Ball the day off would indeed come to fruition. 

Miles Bridges outscored the Knicks 8-4 over the first three minutes of this one, and that trend would damn near go on for seemingly the entire game. 

But then New York reeled it back in, behind a couple of big 3-point makes from Julius Randle, who would make just one more over the final three quarters. 

And then, something crazy happened. 

Mitchell Robinson took Mason Plumlee off the dribble, down the lane, and to the basket. 

And he made the shot. 

Looking back, this was definitely the high point of this game for the Knicks. It was quite literally, all downhill from here.

Bridges scored 12 more points over the final eight minutes of the first quarter, giving him a 20-point first quarter, the most for the Hornets since Kemba Walker had 24 in 2018. 

He was everywhere, dominating New York in a way we’ve seen so many players do en route to recording new career-highs under the bright lights at Madison Square Garden.

This shit was off the goddamn And-1 mixtape. 

And the Knicks, from the looks of it, couldn’t have given a shit less.

They walked into the second quarter down 34-23, with hope renewed behind the reemergence of second-year forward Obi Toppin as a half court commander on offense. 

He scored seven points over the first 2:52 of the second quarter, after scoring just eight points over his last five games combined. 

But alas, he missed a pair of free throws, and Tom Thibodeau pulled him for Randle.

Toppin wouldn’t return until the start of the fourth quarter, with the game completely out of reach and New York down 86-67.

Thibodeau subbed out RJ Barrett, and subsequently subbed in Jericho Sims and Miles McBride for the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

The final score from this one read Charlotte Hornets 97, New York Knicks 87.

There isn’t much else to say of the second half, or this game, really.

Missed free throws, missed shots, missed coaching opportunities, and missing effort.

These are the scenes from LaMelo Ball’s day off — one he only earned by way of the Knicks’ acquiescence from start to finish. 

Notes

• For the first time since his hiring, I’m joining in on the cries of frustration against Tom Thibodeau. This loss isn’t on him, but he shares as much responsibility as anyone else you care to blame. And for a number of reasons.

  • Barrett didn’t get his first rest until the 8:04 mark of the second quarter. And walking into the fourth quarter, he’d tallied 35 minutes. I understand if you want to make a recently scorching-hot Barrett your offensive engine on a day where Randle didn’t have the juice, but in a game where your team has constantly faced a double-digit deficit, on the first night of a back-to-back to boot?

  • For the head coach to bench one of the few guys flashing an actual “give a shit” attitude after making the same mistake that ailed the entire team — I just don’t know how you justify that. And then to keep him on the bench, through the entire third quarter? I’ve got some serious questions about Thibs’ and Toppin’s relationship. Effort on both ends has always been his calling card as a coach. To see him flat-out contradict those morals in a matinee matchup is disturbing.

  • Alec Burks played 25-plus minutes on Monday. That was about 25 minutes too much.

• I need to follow that point up with another, which is that I still firmly believe Thibodeau is the right head coach for this team at this juncture. But god damn did he piss me off on Monday. Fucking hell, Thibs.

• Mitchell Robinson is not-so-quietly setting himself up for a payday this offseason, something that didn’t seem even a distant possibility some months ago. He’s averaging 11.2 points, 9.7 rebounds, and a block per game while shooting 80% from the field over his last 10 games — a stretch that’s seen the Knicks go 7-3.

• I miss Derrick Rose. New York misses Derrick Rose. He’s one player that definitely could have helped to alter this one’s outcome for the Knicks.

• Speaking of missing point guards, Kemba Walker was upgraded to questionable for tonight’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The polarizing opinions surrounding him aside, it will be nice to have a more whole rotation.

• Miles Bridges is really fucking good. He finished with a career-high 38 points and just one turnover in a game he could have easily gone for 50 had it been a close matchup. He’s going to get paid this summer.

• Another point on Charlotte’s behalf and head coach James Borrego’s; they’ve quietly built a sound roster from top to bottom with the biggest holes sitting in the front court. Despite being outdone on the offensive boards 14 to 6, they dominated this game from start to finish. As much as the Knicks were bad, the Hornets were great.

• The Knicks are 4-11 when they don’t score 100 points this season. Offense remains the biggest issue, with overall execution a close second.

• New York shot 11-21 from the charity stripe. Just unacceptable. You’re not going to win games if you can’t make the “very costly” shots, as my colleague Stacy so properly put it on Twitter during the game yesterday:

• It’s hard to think there isn’t an opportunity for Cam Reddish to break the rotation after games like this. And also hard to believe that there aren’t more trades on the horizon.

• New York was +12 with Obi Toppin on the floor yesterday. Not that it needs to be said, but that’s the best plus-minus of any Knickerbocker.

I want to close this one out with two quotes from Clyde Frazier, which I thought perfectly summed up this horrendous effort from the New York Knicks on Monday: 

“Every time we look at them, they’re 30 feet from the basket.”

That one goes out to Tom Thibodeau, who was out-coached from start to finish in this one. 

“When you’re hot, you’re hot.” 

That one, while fairly black and white, holds dual meaning to me in that as hot as Miles Bridges was on Monday, the New York Knicks were somehow colder than the 35 degree temperature outside Madison Square Garden.

Missed free throws, missed shots, missed coaching opportunities, and a missing effort. 

These are the scenes from LaMelo Ball’s day off.