The last western jaunt of the season opens with a Knicks’ L in Sacramento

After a disappointing loss to the Charlotte Hornets at home on Tuesday night, the New York Knicks traveled across the country to take on the upstart Sacramento Kings. Much like the Knicks, the Kings have caught most people off-guard this season, entering the night with a top-3 record in the Western conference. Despite an abysmal shooting performance, the Knicks fought until the final buzzer, falling just short. How meaningful is their second straight loss? And how much can we take from it? Let’s dive in.

A Brief Return

No player represents the roller coaster of emotions that this game was more than Jalen Brunson. Brunson, who missed the last two games with a left ankle injury, laced up his shoes and returned to action, picking up where he left off in Miami. Brunson scored at will and, frankly, was one of the few Knicks to help keep them as close as they stayed, as the Kings’ lead ballooned to double-digits. By halftime, despite his Knicks trailing by 16, Brunson had 19 points on just 12 field goal attempts. 

What Brunson represents is stability in the face of chaos. When the Knicks need a basket or a calming force, there are few in the league more capable than Brunson. His scoring, which almost entirely consists of free throws, shots in the paint, and open threes, comes with very little volatility, a sharp contrast from the rest of the roster. Brunson is not a perfect player, but he is perfect for this team.

Which is why as great as it was to see him back on the court last night, it was equally painful to find out he would not be returning for the second half due to a recurrence of the foot soreness that kept him out of the past two games. Regardless of how this season finishes, there are plenty of reasons to feel encouraged about the direction this franchise is heading. But at least for this season, every one of their top-percentile outcomes involves Brunson. He is their engine. Let’s hope he can heal quickly.

The Good, the Bad and the Phenomenal

If you take one thing from this article, let it be this: Josh Hart was magnificent last night. He was everywhere, ending the game with 15 rebounds, 8 of them offensive. He also had three steals and two end-to-end fastbreak layups. Hart’s tenure with the Knicks has been nothing short of spectacular. In 11 games, the Knicks are outscoring opponents by 16.8 per 100 possessions with him on the court. 

Hart is the ultimate Swiss Army knife, his impact incessant because almost everything he provides is driven by what’s between his ears and behind his chest. To watch Hart is to watch a player who could thrive in any atmosphere. You can take the ball out of a player’s hands but you can’t prevent a guy like Hart from defending, rebounding and working his ass off to help his team. Last night, when the Knicks needed a basket, Hart would race up the court and score in transition, or leap above the entire Kings defense and grab the Knicks a second chance. Hart’s eight offensive rebounds were two more than the entire Kings team collected.

On the other end of the spectrum was Immanuel Quickley, who appears to still be feeling the wear and tear of the draining double-overtime game the Knicks played in Boston. Quickley, who played 55 minutes that night, including the final 34 straight, hasn’t looked right in the two games since. He gets to the same spots he always does. He knows what he’s *supposed* to do. It’s as though his body won’t let him complete the tasks fully. Maybe this is results-oriented thinking. Maybe Quickley, who shot 50% or better from the field in 14 of his previous 18 games, is simply mired in a small shooting slump, and we’re holding the third-year 23-year-old to too high a standard. Something just feels off.

Which brings us to Quentin Grimes. Grimes, dealing with struggles of his own as of late, found something last night. He was one of the few Knicks able to hit a shot and was clearly the team’s best defender at the point of attack. When RJ Barrett and the bench unit led by Hart, Deuce McBride and Obi Toppin clawed their way back into the game, it felt like it was Grimes’ turn to be on the court for the deciding moments: Brunson was in the locker room and Quickley was 0-8 from the field. Instead, Tom Thibodeau had Grimes sit the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, inserted him into the game to watch him hit two 3-pointers that pulled the team within three, then took him out again. 

If you’ve read my recaps long enough, you probably know I usually attempt to tackle the macro. A game like this isn’t all that interesting to me because the truth of the matter is the Knicks lost a road game to the number-two seed in the Western conference by five points on a night when Barrett, Quickley and Julius Randle combine to shoot 4 of 28 from beyond the 3-point line. Sometimes it’s that simple. The Knicks lost 122-117 because they couldn’t hit the ocean from a boat. If anything, this should encourage Knicks fans.

So what can we take from this loss? Shooting matters, duh. So does Brunson. Hart was a tremendous acquisition at the trade deadline, and someone who can impact winning any time he steps on the court. And lastly, if Grimes isn’t closing a game like last night, at a certain point you have to wonder when he is closing. This feels similar to the Quickley situation in 2021-22. It’s not panic time, but it’s something to monitor. Because while Hart is a wonderful player, and Quickley, the sixth man of the year frontrunner, has been one of the team’s most impactful players, we shouldn’t let those two facts allow us to forget that the Knicks’ best pure shooter also happens to be their best defender at the point-of-attack. Sometimes a game will call for that. Will Thibodeau answer that call? Only time will tell.