Recap: Knicks 119, Cavaliers 83: “What the puck is going on?”
The Knicks closed out their preseason with a bang, walloping the Cleveland Cavaliers, 119-83. If you can believe it, it could have been worse than that for the Cavs. Matthew Miranda takes you through the wild ending to the preseason, and Immanuel Quickley’s coming out party.
After the Knicks lost the back end of a two-game set in Detroit Sunday, coach Tom Thibodeau said this: “I like the situation we just went through because you’re playing the same team. Usually, you win a game against an opponent, and you play them again based on experiences in playoff basketball, that team comes with an edge. I felt that would happen. It did. I felt we were back on our heels at the start of the game. The start of the game really got us in a hole.’’ Last night the Knicks had a second chance to give Thibs a good impression. Suffice it to say they did not come out back on their heels.
New York walloped Cleveland 119-83, and if you can believe it, the scoreline actually flattered the losers. Picking up right where they left off in Wednesday’s comeback win, the Knicks blitzed the Cavs 41-18 in the first quarter, 31-17 in the second and 31-22 in the third. Over 48 minutes combined with Wednesday’s stirring fourth, that’s 137-71. Not since the Battle of Midway has one side inflicted such irreparable damage on another in such a short amount of time.
Before the opening tip the Knicks appeared to have the deck stacked against them. Usually in rematch games the team coming off a loss bounces back, and the Knicks were missing all three point guards (Elfrid Payton, Frank Ntilikina, and Dennis Smith Jr.) plus Nerlens Noel, Alec Burks, Austin Rivers, Omari Spellman, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who’s been the Knicks’ preseason’s answer to Jed Lowrie’s time with the Mets. The Cavaliers were without Kevin Love, Andre Drummond, Larry Nance Jr., Kevin Porter Jr., and Junior Walker and the All-Stars. Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman made their returns to action. It didn’t matter.
Immanuel Quickley started at the point, and if you saw the game or Kevin Knox’s postgame interview with Rebecca Haarlow, it’s neither presumptuous nor surprising to conclude professional basketball players like playing with a guard who can pass, penetrate, AND shoot. The Knicks scored on their first seven possessions, many of them things of beauty. Reggie Bullock drew a foul on a corner three on the first. On the second, Quickley could have forced a semi-open 3-pointer; instead he did this:
Quickley then hit from deep. Bullock nailed a rainbow baseline jumper from behind the hoop. Quickley made another three. Bullock scored in transition. It took the Cavs nearly five minutes to finally get a stop. By then the lead was in double-digits and would be the rest of the night.
In what may be a franchise first, three different Knicks were fouled attempting threes in one quarter, with RJ Barrett and Jared Harper joining Bullock; Harper, making his preseason debut, converted a 4-point play.
Harper’s fellow debutantes this evening included Theo Pinson, Ignas Brazdeikis, Bryce Brown, and Myles Powell. Quickley, appearing in just his second game ever, looked like a seasoned pro, and a good one at that, running the offense with aplomb and making all four of his shots en route to 11 first-quarter points. Obi Toppin again with the point forward act with three assists in his first stretch of play.
Knox is in the zone of late and it is something to see, man. Going back to Wednesday’s fourth quarter, he’s hit nine of his last ten 3-point attempts. This corner three was one of Julius Randle’s eight assists and came at the end of a beautiful sequence, putting New York up 56-27.
By the half, the lead was 37. Last night the Knicks’ offense was like the ‘70s Knicks, and the defense like the ‘90s Knicks.
The gap widened in the third as Knox kept on keeping on. Does he look confident because he’s hot? Or is he hot because he’s confident?
The lead reached 49. Truly, this was paradise. Though the poets say one soul’s heaven is another’s hell.
Bullock continued his hot shooting, scoring eight of his 17 in the third. Everyone continued with the hot shooting. The Knicks were the hot knife, the Cavs butter, and for 48 minutes toast.
Notes
This was truly awesome stuff by the Knicks. They outscored the Cavs by 12 on 2-pointers, nine on threes and 15 at the line, and the slash lines looked like the varsity vs. the JV: 51/52/79 vs. 40/39/61.
In his first start, Quickley contributed 22 points, five assists (to just two turnovers), five steals and seven free throw attempts. Go on. Dream big. He’s given you not reason not to.
Clyde Frazier mentioned Mitch has been working on hook shots and midrange jumpers. This after an offseason of talk about Mitch busting out the 3-pointers. We haven’t seen a hook, a jumper or a 3-pointer. It’s getting like when someone’s always going on about what amazing kinky transcendent sex they’re all about, but everyone who’s hooked up with them describes it as something out of “Cat Person.”
Barrett was at his Swiss Army knife best: 15 points, 50% shooting, five rebounds, 5-for-5 at the line, a couple assists, and three steals. The RJ midrange thing where he uses his strength and spins to create just a little room and then hit a fadeaway is quickly becoming a favorite thing.
Just a completely different team defensively with Mitch out there. In a box score of numbers that jump out at you, the jumpiest is him playing 27 minutes without committing a foul. He controlled the glass in the first half and was diving for loose balls. No foul trouble means all-out Mitch, and all-out Mitch might be more impactful than any anybody on this team.
Presenting these last two bullet points in one snack-sized bite:
Toppin was too unselfish on consecutive sets, passing up an open corner three only to end up with a worse look, then driving into a good spot near the rim but trying to kick out to Brazdeikis and turning it over. But he responded: on the next possession he went strong to the bucket and scored, and there was this lovely hockey assist to Knox.
I recapped three games this preseason. The Knicks won all three. I am now accepting PayPal donations for any superstitious sorts who’d like to supplement my coverage. Y’all always talking about what ownership should do with its money. Here’s your chance to put your money where your mouth is and help me help us to a championship.
Ntilikina and Quickley are not just different players in skill, style, roll and temperament — they’re very different. Nowhere is that more evident than in Ntilikina reaching the 20-point barrier in his 178th career game and Quickley doing it in his second preseason affair.
Usually a 10-0 run is something worth mentioning in a recap. The Knicks had so many, it lost all flavor.
A “matadors and picadors” from Clyde. That’s a first.
Clyde and Kenny Albert got a kick out of Frazier’s “The Cavs are wondering ‘What the puck is going on?’” after Albert’s talk of hockey assists.
The Knicks currently have five players from one school (guess which?), a franchise record. Prior to that the most was three, last occurring in 2005-06 with three players who went to Michigan: Jamal Crawford, Jalen Rose and Maurice Taylor.
“The Garden doesn’t look so intimidating with none of you here, folks,” Frazier said. Given this century’s emphasis on mythologizing the building’s past over present-day success, watching a Knicks game at MSG without fans feels like noticing the emperor’s not wearing any clothes. Though the nudity is more tolerable after a couple of home wins.
Quoth Jorge Luis Borges: “Why take 500 pages to develop an idea whose oral demonstration fits into a few minutes?” This recap is over 1400 words, but you’d have gotten the gist of what went down with 240 characters from Zach DiLuzio:
Next game is the season opener, Wednesday at 7:00 in Indiana. The Pacers are the first good team these Knicks will face. Will they stumble like they did in Detroit? Will their form from the last hour against Cleveland continue? The 76th season in New York Knicks history is coming up.
