Knicks 125, Pacers 104
The new era of Knicks basketball is finally underway, with Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier taking the floor for the first time together as Knicks. Did they live up to the hype? Short answer: yes. Long answer: well, here’s the recap to tell you all about it.
Prologue
I remember the dark times.
124 days since the Knicks last played NBA basketball. The wait is over.
Even with Nerlens Noel getting some rest and Mitchell Robinson still not quite ready for the season, the Knicks fielded maybe their best starting lineup since 2013 in this preseason game.
Time to live up to the hype.
Chapter 1
An anticlimactic start with three straight Knicks misses...
But then the first bucket of the preseason was, poetically, Kemba Walker. Just for fun, a drive and finish at the cup, most people’s biggest concern for decline in Kemba’s game.
Soon after, the newest Knick went back to his signatures — drawing a charge (he led the league in charges drawn last year, per the MSG broadcast) and hitting a pretty step-back midrange bucket.
RJ Barrett was playing with confidence early, hitting a quick-trigger semi-transition wing triple after a couple of early misses. He had a sweet drive-and-dish for a Taj Gibson layup as well. As I recently discussed with Strickland Editor-In-Chief Alex Wolfe on the Locked on Knicks podcast, playmaking will be a key growth area for RJ this season with more mouths to feed from a field goal attempts perspective this season.
Evan Fournier mostly looked like a floating plastic bag early on defense, most notably getting beat for an offensive rebound by Jeremy Lamb, but showed his offensive punch with a pretty 2-man game with Julius Randle that ended in a sweet fadeaway triple to cap off a 10-0 Knicks run!
Can you visualize Reggie Bullock executing that sequence?
Taj Gibson soon rained a corner three as well, after taking just 15 triples all last season. Just preseason, or sign of things to come? Nerlens did note during training camp that the Knicks staff had asked him personally to work on his corner threes this past offseason.
Randle looked locked in on defense, getting a steal-and-score in the midst of nice competitive defense on Domantas Sabonis and some flashes of rim protection.
Jericho Sims, getting more playing opportunity with Nerlens and Mitch out, made his presence known with a nice alley-oop layup as well.
Obi Toppin had a fun entrance, getting beat on the glass for a defensive rebound but grabbing the loose ball immediately, before running a full 1-man fastbreak for a bucket, then coming back for a block on the other end.
The entire Knicks team seemed to really be emphasizing pace, pushing the ball up the floor extremely aggressively with consistency on their way to 36 first-quarter points. A likely prudent strategy for the season: considering their elite depth and bench (can you believe it?), it could behoove them to use their long rotation to test other teams’ stamina.
Ten Knicks played in the first quarter. Ten Knicks scored.
Chapter 2
Obi continued to exude confidence offensively, opening the quarter’s scoring with a midrange cash and leak-out transition dunk. Shades of STAT!
The leak-outs would continue, as Alec Burks followed up Obi’s jam with a runout of his own to beat Indiana back down the floor to draw a foul. Pace, pace, pace!
The Knicks were still working on some defensive kinks — Kemba and Sims got beat badly for a wide open dunk off a pick-and-roll — but that’s to be expected for the new guys. Thibs called a timeout after some matador D by Obi and Kemba for layups.
Fournier showed effort defensively in this quarter, but simply got beat on a drive and with a backdoor cut by Jeremy Lamb. He then came back the next possession to draw a foul on Lamb — this could be a real, yet early, taste of the Evan Fournier experience.
Kemba showed off the playmaking chops with a sweet pocket pass to Taj, but no dice (Myles Turner vs. Knick fans revenge game?).
RJ’s defense, which will be key to his development this year (especially with the loss of Reggie Bullock), was up and down in the quarter — he seemed a lot more competitive bodying the forwards than staying in front of the guards. Something to watch.
Speaking of RJ, the jumper was perpetually smooth, but the finishing still looked to be a work-in-progress, as he had already missed a couple of lefty (contested) layups by midway through the quarter.
Meanwhile, Healthy Kemba continued to look Healthy.
To take us into the half, Julius showed us another taste of the elite shot-making he relied on last season (there were fans in the arena btw) with a double-clutch buzzer beater.
Interlude
Nice, Bogaerts took Cole deep.
Chapter 3
RJ defense into offense alert.
The 21-year old went right at his two biggest first half weaknesses, coming up with a nice steal before a grown man’s off-hand finish at the rim.
It also appears RJ’s hot 3-point shooting from last year was not, in fact, a fluke, as he quickly and calmly drained an off-action triple. Unfortunate for the haters.
Kemba continued to demonstrate the defense-warping ability he brings with a pull-up trey, looking extra stark when thinking back to the team’s starter from last season.
And how about this gorgeous no-look dime, made possible by the gravity of Julius Randle’s improved 3-point shooting:
This is a legitimate offense, folks.
Meanwhile, the Taj Gibson Nikola Jokic impression continued, as he had 14 points, six rebounds, and three assists by the 7:23 mark in the third after a nice little drop-step jumper.
The movement offense continued to be beautiful — off-ball screens, back-door cuts, the whole shebang.
The defense frankly wasn’t too impressive — the Knicks let the floodgates open a bit in the third against the Pacers’ backups, potentially partially due to the size of their lead (the rubber band effect!).
Immanuel Quickley also got his first taste of the new reffing rules, trying to draw a foul on a 3-point attempt to no avail late in the third. Certainly a storyline to watch this season as IQ looks to build on his excellent rookie campaign.
Chapter 4
Already with a 21-point lead, what would the final act hold?
For the Knicks, still the Knicks, as Obi, IQ, Rose, and Burks all took the floor to start the fourth.
How about some IQ defense into a bucket? Quickley got a swat on one end into a nice looking pull-up two on the other to put New York up 23 early in the frame.
On the other end, some more poor pick-and-roll defense by Jericho Sims, this time with D-Rose as his partner, sent Thibs into a frenzy. You can see why Thibs is so willing to invest so much money into guys like Mitch, Noel, and Taj to run his system.
Ok, Thibs — it’s preseason. Can we maybe get the starters some rest?
The Knicks scoring slowed down quite a bit - a blocked alley-oop attempt by IQ and Sims, a couple of missed layups, and the lead was back down to 15.
However, soon off the bench came the spark New York needed.
Meanwhile, Obi’s confidence continued to sparkle - a gorgeous one-on-one move for a bucket that Clyde noted he would have “never done last year.”
Deuce was eventually followed by Kevin Knox and Quentin Grimes in a 20-point game, as D-Rose finally got some well-deserved rest.
Kev didn’t look fantastic in his first couple of minutes, air-balling a three before getting blown by on defense, though he came back with a nice backdoor cut for a two-handed slam and a pretty drive for a layup. It looks more and more difficult every day for him to crack a spot in this suddenly full Knicks rotation.
One interesting call by Thibs: leaving IQ in through the end of the game to work on his playmaking chops as lead ball handler. There were mixed results, but mostly positive, as Quickley showed a couple of pretty dishes off of pick-and-roll on his way to a team-leading seven assists in the game. IQ only had seven or more assists in a game twice his entire rookie season.
Epilogue
What a fun night.
It was an absolute blast watching this brand new Knicks team, with drama-free good basketball and a team that looks to be a legitimate 10 deep. Maybe the biggest takeaway? Those were the Knicks. With the exception of Sims as an injury replacement, that was the A team.
It’s extremely difficult not to overreact to preseason, but there were clear trends to clean from that game. Motion offense, shooting, but most of all, an emphasis on pace.
Kemba Walker dribble threes and Evan Fournier drives were as advertised. Randle went back to his old self with a quiet 20 and nine. RJ rained; IQ and Obi played with gusto. I guess the Knicks won’t miss Elf and Reggie on defense if they can outscore the competition.
There are plenty more games to go, and once the real games come along, points will be harder to come by. It seems clear, though, that this is a more talented Knicks team than we’ve seen in years — and tonight, their story got underway. I’m looking forward to experiencing another one with you all.
