The Knicks seemed primed to potentially lose to another cellar-dweller at home, but an Alec Burks explosion in the fourth let New York escape with a win over the lowly Rockets.

Two thousand years ago, John of Patmos wrote in the book of Revelation “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.” Mass panic and suicides often pair with celestial omens; they’re the brie and warm bread of hysterics. Last night the Knicks found themselves locked in combat with a 1-14 Houston Rocket team on a 13-game losing streak. That New York struggled so long with a foe so low had some fans fixing to slip the mortal coil. Don’t jump, loves. The sun will shine again.

The opening quarter was a pocket apocalypse, a 12-minute span where the hometown heroes put up just 13 points on a 22/30/0 slash line. They were down double-digits in the second after Jae’Sean Tate muscled his way for two at the cup.

Taj Gibson was out and Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel both played banged up and picked up three first-half fouls. That fact was more eyebrow-raising than usual, given that the referees swallowed their whistles in the locker room pregame and let the teams bump, bang and forecheck like it was 1980. Robinson would leave the game for good in the third after taking a shot to the nose. On a night the Knicks found themselves scraping with the bottom of the barrel, their depth would be tested; as is often the case, their depth was their saving grace. 

With the offense in famine mode early, Obi Toppin took to the skies and rained down manna in the form of free throws and throwdowns. Obadiah leads the Knicks in free throw attempts per 36 and that helped hold the fort when the long night was at its darkest. Dawn dawned in the second quarter, when the Knicks put up 34 points. An RJ Barrett steal and 1-on-3 breakaway layup tied things at 38. 

On another night the Knicks’ slow start might have doomed them. But the Rockets are a truly bad team. You can see glimpses of their future, but in the now they’re a lot of hopeless drives leading to turnovers and defensive breakdowns. Evan Fournier started working off Julius Randle screens in a way reminiscent of Reggie Bullock and Randle’s two-man game last season. 3van was hot from deep, the Knicks got to the line 14 times in the second, and yet at the half it was all square at 47. 

In the third, RJ busted out this pretty spin and off-hand finish.

Some of the scoring struggles stem from Randle and Kemba Walker struggling to figure each other out. Randle is at times insistent on feeding Kemba, sometimes getting a pass from him and immediately whipping it back. We see that sort of quick-hitting back-and-forth with Randle and RJ, especially, when they get the pass back at the arc and use the momentum to lubricate their driving lanes. I don’t get the sense that Kemba is looking for the same launch, either because he’s not confident going to the rim or he’s tamping down his aggressiveness trying to fit with a new team. 

Not comparing skill level here but situations: it took LeBron James and Dwyane Wade a full season together to figure out how to play together. Allan Houston and Patrick Ewing were not an immediate fit. I don’t think Randle’s ever played with someone like Walker, and Kemba’s never paired with a point forward. They have the worst plus/minus rating of New York’s nine most common two-man lineups. It gets better, they say. I believe that. But it’s mos def a work in progress.

Fournier’s distance shooting was some breath of life for the Knicks. When he wasn’t drilling deep off-shore, he found Barrett on a beautiful baseline cut.

Late in the third, Randle erupted for a 3-pointer and a pull-up at the top of the key, then screened 3van for another long ball. Still, Houston had a taste of blood and kept the hunt going; the Knicks couldn’t pull away. Speaking of tasting blood, Noel drew an offensive foul on Christian Wood after the Rocket big man accidentally hit him with an elbow to the chops on a 3-point attempt. Noel went down hard, but stayed in the game and even took the final shot of the frame, an open corner 3-pointer. He missed, but the resilience on a night the Knicks were (as usual) shorthanded at center was appreciated.

Forty-four seconds into the fourth, Tom Thibodeau called an angry timeout after five fast Houston points put them up six.

There was a desperation by both teams that made for some real moving art. The Rockets just need a win, any win, period. The Knicks have already suffered some disturbing defeats this season; dropping this one would have dug up a whole new level of shame. Not too long ago, the Knicks were closer to the Rockets’ level than a legitimate team. Legitimacy springs from the loins of competence, and competence begins with caring about winning. Houston, led by one of the world’s great reprehensible capitalists, isn’t in that business these days. New York is, thanks in part to people like Alec Burks. Late Game was at it again in the closing minutes, repeating his stellar defensive work from the other night vs. Indiana and providing points on the other end. He went off for 17 in the quarter.

Immanuel Quickley was also a key closer, pouring in nine in the fourth, including a breakaway 3-pointer to put the Knicks up five, part of a 17-5 run that finally gave the home team some breathing room.

The Knicks scored 13 in the first on 22/30/0. They finished with 106 on a 42/44/85 line. The Rockets shot just 26% from deep and 59% from the charity stripe. It was squeaky bum time for a while last night, but sometimes what feels like the end of the world is just an eclipse, a present darkness that gives way to the light. In a season where every game can feel like a referendum on the Knicks, it’s useful to remember that.

Notes

• A Kemba appreciation: he was hurt after hitting a tough lay-up and Daniel Theis falling on top of his knee. He stayed in, and the next time he touched the ball he drove to the hoop and was fouled hard. He came out smiling. Smiles Walker doesn’t always play well, but he’s easy to like.

• One of the more enjoyable manifestations of Mitch’s muscularity: watching him soar through contact while finishing dunks. Dude can jump from a standing position and just power through fools. Nice.

• That thing where RJ is out on the break and tries to finish over multiple defenders… it’s cool ‘cuz doing so leaves the trailer free to corral the contested miss, only one time last night the trailer was Noel, so he ended up dropping it out of bounds, natch.

• Don’t ask me why, but I really feel like if Kevin Knox could’ve finished some of the near-epic facials he attempted his first few years in the league, things would’ve turned out differently for him.

• You can tell IQ was the kind of baby who didn’t take naps. You can tell Knox took good, long ones.

• Jeff Hornacek is a Houston assistant. Dude looks younger and brighter than when he led the Knicks.

• If you squint a little after the edibles kick in, you can almost see a Kobe/Pau energy from Jalen Green and Alpern Şengün. The former has athleticism for days; the latter is such a multi-talented center.

• Stephen Silas has mastered the sideline death stare. It doesn’t even look put on. I think he just has Resting Death Face.

• Maybe this is just me, and I certainly can’t claim there was any malice or ugliness in his heart. But seeing Noel go flying into a cameraman trying to block a shot, and seeing James Dolan sitting right next to it smiling while he looks down at Noel... I don’t like it.  

• At one point Thibs looked like he wanted to literally murder official Bennie Adams.

• My fiancee mentioned the idea of a clock that features Thibs’ angry face behind the hands and whoever runs The Strickland shop needs to get on that shit STAT.

• Breen and Clyde both felt the officials let too much physical play go. Breen said it made the game “ragged.” It was jarring, certainly compared to how the game’s been called for however many years now. But I certainly don’t mind a bit more of that.

Quoth John of Patmos: “The moon became as blood.” The Knicks’ next game features nighttime and the color red, as they head to Chicago for a running with the Bulls. Chicago will be looking for revenge and New York will be looking for their first winning streak in three weeks. The world moves on. What choice do we have but to do the same?