Knicks 122, Nuggets 112: The crème de la crème
Last night MSG watched the league’s best big man leading a title-contender. Also, Nikola Jokić & the Nuggets were in town
If last night’s Knicks/Nuggets game at Madison Square Garden were a boxing match, the Knicks would have won every round 10-9. Instead it was a basketball game, one they won 122-112 and in so doing swept the season series from Denver. Did you know that this season, other than their opening night loss to the Celtics, the Knicks are 7-0 against every NBA champ since 2019?
That number’s a bit specious, given New York has yet to play Golden State or the L.A. LeBrons. Plus the only current Raptor who was on the 2019 titleists is Chris Boucher, a bit player then who’s only slightly more than that now. Still, there was something encouraging about one through line from both wins over Denver, one that extends to the other former champ the Knicks have won both games with this season.
If someone told you before last night Nikola Jokić would finish with 39 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists you wouldn’t have blinked. The man who may win a fourth MVP in five years has already established himself as the Association’s most dominant center since Shaquille O’Neal, if not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Now what if someone told you 39/13/13 would be Jokić’s numbers against the Knicks over both games this year? ‘Cuz they were.
Is Karl-Anthony Towns the kryptonite to Denver’s superman? Last year the Nuggets were up 3-2 on Towns’ Timberwolves in the first round before losing Games 6 and 7. Jokić has nothing to apologize for, averaging 28 points and 14 rebounds those two games versus 16.5 and 12.5 for KAT. But don’t let the numbers fool you: Nikola played 15 more minutes than Towns those games, finishing with a -34 rating. KAT those two games? +35. Also of note: in this season’s meetings, Towns outscored Jokić, posted double-doubles in each contest and even finished with as many assists. He’s now won his last four meetings against today’s GOAT, as well as besting the celestial Giannis Antetokounmpo’s output in the Knicks’ two meetings with Milwaukee.
That’s kind of a big deal.
The Knicks’ history with the NBA’s best has never been a bright spot: not giving up 100 to Wilt; close but no cigar when Bernard King being briefly incandescent but never Larry Bird; Patrick Ewing was such a great many great things, but never Shaq or Hakeem or that gambler from Chicago; Carmelo Anthony was a first ballot Hall of Famer yet only the third-best player in his draft class, a problem since the two above him teamed up with the one right beneath him – and I’m not even goin to mention New York having chances at Kareem and Dr. J, and coming up empty-handed.
That’s part of what’s made the past two playoffs, exhilarating as they were, so hard to swallow afterward. The Heat didn’t have the best player in the 2023 series; the Knicks did, in Jalen Brunson. Last year the coward who waited till the coast was clear after winning Game 7 to wear an inflammatory hoodie like he’s 12 years old was not the best player in the series, though by the end of that war of attrition Tyrese Haliburton was probably the best combination of good and upright.
This year the Knicks could have the two best players in any series they’re in. Obviously people like Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, Shai-Gilgeous Alexander and a few others will have their backers, but the ‘Bockers could be bucking a historical trend they’d do well to. Brunson’s outplayed Mitchell more than once in the playoffs. Towns may not have Jokić’s number, but he knows his stomping grounds.
For once when the stakes are at their highest come May and June, the Knicks are a team everybody else has to have answers for. That doesn’t even count Josh Hart, who’s clinched playoff wins over Philadelphia and Cleveland the past few years. Or the other two-thirds of Wingstop. Or Miles McBride, who would have hit the series-clinching jumper against the Sixers in Game 5 if Mitchell Robinson hadn’t pulled a Leon Lett in sneakers and fouled Tyrese Maxey to gift Philly a four-point play and an overtime stay of execution.
The Knicks are 32-16 after last night’s win, a 55-win pace. Brunson and Towns are looking likely to be the first All-NBA Knick teammates since Richard Nixon said he wasn’t a crook and then turned out to be. Same as the current president. Keep hope alive, brothers and sisters. If the Knicks can be a crème de la crème team while icing one MVP and former champ after another, we may one day look back on felonious presidents the way we do Enes Freedom: our offense at such a nightmare exceeded only by our gratitude in knowing that was the past, with the present and future both promising.