Knicks 116, Pelicans 106: Barometer game

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Written By Ted

The Knicks earned their first four-game win streak of the season behind a magnificent second half for Alec Burks and a second straight 30-point game from Julius Randle to down the Pelicans on the road.

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The Knicks flew into New Orleans looking for their fourth win in a row, a feat they hadn’t yet accomplished this season. The difficulty of getting the win over the Pelicans was increased when Nerlens Noel was replaced by Taj Gibson in the starting lineup, seemingly just before tipoff. The Knicks later said Noel had a sore right ankle.

It would have been very easy to chalk the game up as an L there — Noel’s importance was magnified by the Knicks’ opponent, the omnipresent Zion Williamson, but the Knicks refused to roll over. Randle hit three shots from beyond the arc, and Bullock splashed in a three and a 20-foot jump shot to put the Knicks up 16-10. The Pelicans would tie the game up at 26 at the end of the first, with help from some porous defense from the Knicks.

The second quarter opened with New York pulling ahead on a 10-0 run, featuring this wonderful touch pass from Derrick Rose to Norvel Pelle.

 
 

The run was capped off by a technical foul and this great feed from Rose to Immanuel Quickley.

 
 

A Kira Lewis Jr. missed three lead to another great moment from Rose, a beautiful behind the back move in transition.

 
 

The Pelicans kept it close, largely behind some slicing and dicing by Williamson, and the Knicks entered halftime up just one.

The third quarter opened with a Gibson put-back, followed by a missed Elfrid Payton step-back three. Brandon Ingram responded by using his long arms to easily scoop in a layup, and there were points tonight where it felt like the Pelicans were in a layup line. The Knicks came into the game allowing the 26th-highest frequency of shots at the rim, but they had the second-best opponent field goal percentage on those shots, largely thanks to Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel’s excellent rim defense. With both out, there was no one to stop Zion, likely the best rim attacker the NBA has seen since LeBron James played in South Beach. The Pelicans would finish the game with 56 points in the paint.

With three minutes remaining in the third quarter, Gibson fouled Ingram on a 3-point shot. Ingram sank all three free throws to put the Pelicans up five. The waning minutes of the third would mark the last time New Orleans led in the game, as the Knicks then came storming back to exit the third up four, featuring this smooth pull-up J from Rose with 1.6 remaining.

 
 

Thibodeau shortened the rotation in the fourth quarter — just seven Knicks would play any minutes, and Randle, Rose, and Alec Burks would play all 12. Burks, who had been quiet the past few games, erupted in the fourth, starting with an and-one on a floater, followed by a three. Burks scored the first 11 fourth quarter points for the Knicks, and he and Randle would combine for 21 of the Knicks’ 23 fourth quarter points on the way to victory.

 
 

Notes

  • The Knicks had a higher eFG% than New Orleans (54.1% to 48.9%), turned it over less than New Orleans (6.1% TO% to 9.1%), and got more offensive rebounds than New Orleans (20% ORB% to 18%). New Orleans drew more fouls than New York, however (.134 free throw rate for the Knicks to .273 for the Pels).

  • RJ Barrett played just 28 minutes tonight and didn’t touch the court in the fourth. I was okay with that decision — RJ finished with 28.7% True Shooting for just six points tonight. After RJ’s recent clutch play, it was a little jarring at first to see Thibs not roll with him, but I think more good than bad will come from Thibs sitting him tonight.

  • Quickley and Obi Toppin combined to play just 16 minutes. The decision to play Quickley just 10 minutes, despite him playing well, was annoying and asinine to me.

  • An unimpressive stat line for DRose tonight — 39.3% True Shooting for 11 points and four assists. The stats, in this instance, don’t tell the whole story. I thought Rose played incredibly well, and was a major reason the Knicks won tonight. He also recorded a block for the second game in a row — almost exactly in the same spot, too.

  • Elfrid Payton played well. He had a couple of nice layups and had two nice put-backs too.

  • New York never truly asserted any sort of dominance over the Pelicans, but my feel was that the Knicks were in control almost the whole game. Even at the points where New Orleans took the lead in the third quarter, it never felt like there was any danger of this one getting away from the Knicks. Clyde noted that the intensity from both sides was more like a pickup game than an NBA game.

  • Randle, once again, did it all for the Knicks tonight, with 32 points on 56.7% True Shooting, a team-leading five assists, eight rebounds, and a team-leading 5-8 from deep.

  • Norvel Pelle, on his second 10-day contract, played 13 minutes and shot 2-3 from the field. Pelle endeared himself to Knicks fans when he played through a dislocated finger in a blowout the other week. Tonight, he played well, and on short notice too.

  • Gibson filled in well for Noel at the pivot. If Thibodeau is still coaching 10 years from now, I’d bet that 46-year-old Taj Gibson will still be playing good, hard minutes for him.

  • Burks was simply incredible in the fourth. Through the first three quarters, he had seven points. He doubled it up in the fourth, scoring 11 straight and nailing a three right over Williamson that pretty much clinched it. “Dripless JR Smith” is an apt description of Burks. Two of Burks’ three misses from deep were the easiest shots he got all night — two wide open corner threes, and he bricked them both. But when you’re hot, you’re hot, and when you’re not, you’re not.

  • The Knicks are now 3-0 in games that I recap.

  • Clyde called this a “barometer game” before tip-off. I agree. Pulling off a win against the Pels without Noel, and getting the first four-game win streak of the season is important. The Knicks may lose the next couple of games, but they’ve established and proven to me that they’re able to rip off win streaks and break losing streaks when they need to.

  • Lastly, I’d be remiss to not talk about the force of nature the Knicks played tonight. Williamson made driving into a packed paint look like a stroll in the park. The Pels played a significant portion of the game putting Zion in a lineup where Kira Lewis or James Johnson were the best floor spacers, and that’s a shame, because Zion surrounded by four shooters would be my favorite team to watch. Zion recorded 25 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists. Appreciate Zion while he’s here (which should hopefully be a long time).

After winning tonight, the Knicks find themselves in sole possession of the sixth seed in the East with 16 games left in the season. They’re just a game and a half behind the fourth-seeded Hawks, and sit a comfortable six games above 10th-seeded Chicago. A catastrophic meltdown would have to happen for the Knicks to miss the play-in at this rate. The Knicks head to Dallas to take on the hated Mavericks on Friday, looking for their first five-game win streak since the 2013-14 season.

Ted

Knicks fan trying to combine their love of the team, analytics, and Clyde’s commentary into their writing.

Twitter: @GOATinNY

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