Knicks 100, Wizards 97: It’s tough to be overjoyed by this victory
The Knicks scraped out a win against the Wizards at home, but unfortunately succumbed to many of the same pitfalls that they have throughout the season in the process.
A wild winning streak appears! The Knicks, coming off two tough losses against high quality opponents, came home and have now, in spite of their best efforts, won two straight games. There’s no sugarcoating it; this was an ugly game. And it was the type of ugly game that, despite the win, makes you question what the greater plan is in New York… if there is one at all. What went down? Let’s dive in.
Extend him
Even if you don’t know the drill, you can probably imagine how this game went. When Immanuel Quickley checked in for the first time at around the five minute mark in the first quarter, the Knicks had already fallen behind by five points. Aside from the occasional Spain pick-and-roll the starters bust out with Evan Fournier, or the pistol action they run for RJ Barrett, the Knicks’ offense is almost entirely read-based. Given the starting lineup has exactly one advantage creator, this results in a lot of stagnation. And on some nights, like last night, when the shots aren’t falling, it results in an abundance of offensive rebounds for one Mitchell Robinson.
Robinson came into the night with a little extra motivation, because matching up against him at center was former Knick favorite turned villain Kristaps Porzingis. Robinson owned him. He ended the night with a whopping 10 offensive rebounds, while commanding the interior defensively. This was as classic a Mitch game as you’ll see. It checked all of the boxes. He even attempted a baby hook from six feet! Robinson deserves all of the praise he can get for what he’s done this season. He has remained committed to staying out of foul trouble. He is a rebounding force — the Knicks have their highest total rebound percentage when Mitch is on the court and their lowest when he is off it. Oh yeah, did I mention he may set the single season field goal percentage record… for the second time in his four-year career?
He does all of this despite a play never being called for him. They say, “enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Well that is especially true for Robinson. For starters, I fear we may not ever realize just how important he is to this team until he leaves. But also, for a guy to spend 100% of the minutes he plays doing the little things, is a big thing. Some lose focus or are hurt by decreasing incentive. Others, encouraged by their rising individual stock, expect their role to grow as their stock does, which ultimately burns them.
Instagram videos aside, Robinson does not strike me as the type of fellow to start demanding post touches. I believe, more than anything, he just wants to be valued. The Knicks have the chance this offseason to show them that they value him. I hope they do.
Winning basketball player
The point guard position has been the most talked about subject of the season amongst Knick fans. That conversation, at least for the final twelve games, should be over. Immanuel Quickley is the team’s best, and probably only (healthy), point guard. And it’s not even close. Picking up where he left off last game, Quickley was tremendous once again last night. He is such a fantastic organizer, which is something I believe gets lost in the shuffle with him. Quickley is the only player, including Barrett, who gives the team he steps on the court with an identity.
At this point, I’m not sure what the Knicks have been waiting for. While the team results have improved slightly, Alec Burks continues to struggle as the team’s nominal point guard. As of last night, Burks has only barely over a 50% true shooting percentage as a starter. His numbers, across the board, decline when he starts. This is a lost season. Continuing to force your 30-year-old who is clearly optimized as a bench scorer into a role he’s ill-equipped for has made little sense all season, even when Quickley was struggling.
And guess what? Quickley is not struggling anymore. He has found his footing. The second he stepped on the court, the atmosphere changed. Gone were the stagnant, lifeless possessions that have come to define this team. Replaced by something far better; a team with purpose. On offense, Quickley mixes a hedgehog-like energy with a newfound composure. There is no one on the Knicks who more regularly gathers the team amidst a cluster and organizes them, pointing out for each player where to be.
As his comfort and confidence have grown, so has his feel for the game. Julius Randle was 2-6 with three turnovers in the first quarter. He looked lost. In the second quarter, Quickley, whose shot continued to fall, made a point to get Randle the ball in his spots. Five straight possessions ended with Randle shooting free throws or knocking down a jump shot. Five. And every one of them he received the ball from Quickley in the flow of the offense. By halftime, the Knicks had turned a 7-point deficit into a 7-point lead on the backs of Quickley and Robinson.
At a certain point we have to stop focusing on what Immanuel Quickley isn’t and pay credence to what he is: a winning basketball player. The New York Knicks, for almost two seasons now, have consistently been better when he steps onto the court. It doesn’t matter whether he’s dominating the ball or playing off Derrick Rose. It doesn’t matter if his shot is falling or he can’t hit the broad side of a barn. No player, statistically, correlates with winning basketball more than Immanuel Quickley. Stop pigeonholing him.
Worst quarter of the season
I’m sure this sounds outrageous to some. How can a quarter that the Knicks ultimately won be the worst of the season? Yes, the fourth quarters at home against the tanking Oklahoma City Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers teams were bad. But when those games happened, there was still ample time to infuse change into a rotation desperate for it. And, more importantly, the Knicks had not committed to head coach Tom Thibodeau beyond this season yet.
Neither of those things are true any longer. There are only 12 games left in the season, and Thibodeau has been given a temporary vote of confidence headed into next season. We’ve seen ghastly offense before; it’s not a mistake that the Knicks are 27th in points per game and 23rd in ORTG. But it’s been a long time since we’ve seen one player completely hijack an offense the way Julius Randle did in the third quarter.
At first, it appeared by design. But as the minutes went by, any semblance of structure or foundation an offense could be built upon slowly eroded. Randle post-ups that started with screens became Randle isolations from all over the court. If the ball-handler was dribbling at the top of the key, Randle would plant himself on the elbow. If the ball-handler was dribbling at the elbow-extended, Randle would play himself on the wing or at the free throw line. Every time down the court.
I re-watched the quarter to make sure I hadn’t exaggerated the grotesqueness in my mind; I hadn’t. It was bad. And while the Knicks’ lead hovered around seven, due to a Knicks defense that tightened and the Wizards’ general ineptitude, it felt like the Knicks were trying to run the clock out on a game that was barely half over. In total, Randle isolated in the mid-post in at least 11 possessions during the third quarter, a quarter in which he went 0-7 from the field.
It’s quarters like this that make you wonder if the Knicks, at any level, have an agenda beyond the game in front of them. There has to be somebody on the coaching staff or in the front office, somebody collecting the money of Knick fans who remain committed to this infuriating team year after year, who knows just how harmful these games continue to be. The team refuses to learn anything new about itself. Despite losing the first eight minutes of the third quarter, Thibodeau did not make a single sub. Despite being outscored by five points throughout their time on the court together, the starting unit of Burks-Fournier-Barrett-Randle-Robinson racked up almost 20 more minutes of gameplay together in this game alone. To be clear, 20 is the same amount of minutes that the five-man unit of Quickley-Quentin Grimes-Barrett-Randle-Robinson (which has a +39 net rating) has seen all season.
I am a big believer that life exists in the shades of gray. There is nuance to everything, and most answers tend to lie somewhere in the middle between two extreme points of view. But at this point in an NBA season, there are really only two goals: winning basketball games or development. This is why I am sure if you asked Thibodeau directly he would say something along the lines of, “we’re doing what we think gives us the best chance to win.” Hell, we’ve heard it from him before.
But, ignoring the fact that there is very little evidence that what Thibodeau is currently doing gives the Knicks the best chance to win, you reach a time when other things have to start mattering. There is a threshold in which you can sacrifice a small amount of win equity to enhance other areas. They’ve already admitted as much in having Jericho Sims replace Taj Gibson in the rotation! So it’s time to take these steps in other areas. Obi Toppin and Deuce McBride combining to play nine minutes in a game Randle, Barrett and Fournier played 113 minutes and shot a combined 17-57 from the floor is indefensible. So is the Knicks coming out of halftime with just a single game plan: get Julius Randle the ball.
This is why, despite the Knicks hanging on by the seat of their pants to win this game, it’s tough to be overjoyed about this victory. The Knicks rode more stellar bench play to build a double digit lead in the fourth quarter, but the game followed the same script we’ve been seeing for 70 games. Up 96-81 with four minutes left in the game, the Knicks decided to revert to their “victory formation” offense. I don’t need to go into any more detail, you know what happened: Porzingis grabbed a rebound with 25 seconds left and tossed the ball to teammate Kyle Kuzma, and the Wizards somehow had a shot to take the lead.
That shot didn’t fall. But I think, on some level, Knick fans' collective heads dropped just a little bit, because this game made it clear that this season is likely going to go down as a lost one. For the second straight offseason New York’s going to scour the free agency market for a point guard, without the slightest interest in finding out if the player best suited to fill in next to Barrett and Randle isn’t already on the roster. For the second straight offseason we’re expecting the front office to make important decisions without all of the information. Which, for a roster that will certainly seek to consolidate its assets this summer, is suboptimal, to say the least.
