Nuggets 113, Knicks 99: “We’re in a funk right now”
For the eighth time this season, the New York Knicks suffered a loss on their home floor, falling to reigning MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, 113-99.
Through 23 games last season, the New York Knicks were 10-13.
Through 23 games this season, the New York Knicks are 11-12.
As that margin between last season’s start and this year’s continues to close, and seemingly inevitably overlap, this team’s outlook becomes more and more clear.
…and the picture ain’t pretty.
Saturday’s afternoon matinee started off with the anticipated return of RJ Barrett, who’d missed the last game and a half with an illness.
The third overall pick of the 2019 NBA Draft scored the team’s first bucket against Denver.
Barrett would go on to notch seven points within the first six minutes of the first quarter.
But even still, the Knicks weren’t able to keep up with point-Jokic and the Nuggets.
Ten points from the reigning MVP pushed Denver to a 30-25 lead after one quarter.
As they have so many times before, New York started this one off slow, playing down to the competition — albeit a Western Conference powerhouse — a team missing two starters that had lost seven of their last eight games.
And as the competition has every time the Knicks allow, they took advantage.
As the Denver Nuggets social media team put it so properly on Twitter, it started raining threes in Madison Square Garden, and not in a good way.
Will Barton, Zeke Nnaji, and hell, even Davon Reed were hitting practice gym heaters.
Meanwhile, Julius Randle and the Knicks couldn’t hit the back side of a barn.
New York walked into halftime never having lead, down 60-49, and after giving up 33 combined points to Jokic and noted second fiddle Nnaji, who hit four threes in the first half.
The 3-point barrage, as well as the Knicks’ poor shooting, continued on into the third.
Behind a god-like effort from Jokic, New York gave up a 23-3 run and walked into the final quarter facing a 21-point deficit.
That much, we’d soon find out, would be too much to overcome. At least, for the Knicks of Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. Maybe a different day’s squad would have put on a comeback.
Everything that Thibs implemented in the second half was too little, too late.
First-round pick Quentin Grimes, who did end up playing a majority of the fourth quarter, didn’t check into the game until there were seconds remaining in the third quarter.
And, hey! New York’s head coach showed a willingness to run some Julius Randle/Obi Toppin lineups, albeit for the majority of garbage time in the fourth quarter.
“We’re in a funk right now.”
It was Julius Randle, not head coach Tom Thibodeau, who came out first to speak to the media after New York’s 113-99 blowout loss, and his first comment couldn’t have been more fitting.
Stretch five Nnaji, who’s never hit five shots from deep or scored 20 points in a game prior to Saturday, accomplished both of those things against the Knicks.
He’s the fifth player this season to set a new career-high on the storied hardwood at MSG.
“We’re in a funk right now.”
Following an offseason where the team added Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker in order to improve an offense that scored a measly 107 points per game, New York’s scoring an even lesser 106.5 points per game to start this season.
“We’re in a funk right now.”
The aforementioned starting point guard addition, Walker, who was hailed all offseason as the hometown kid making his long-awaited homecoming, watched from the sidelines on Saturday afternoon as the team failed to string together any NBA-resemblant form of offense.
Fill-in starter Alec Burks, who spent the last two years with the Knicks in a bench role, finished the early weekend matinee with zero assists after recording 11 over the last three games.
Last season, New York finished their 72-game slate averaging 21.4 assists per game.
This year, New York is averaging 21.6.
“We’re in a funk right now.”
No one’s sure what it’s going to take to fix New York, but if you’re asking Randle, it starts with the Knicks’ personnel, who remain uncommitted.
Following their 23rd game of the season, that’s not what you want to hear from your best player, but to say his comments weren’t warranted would be lying.
“We’re in a funk right now.”
Notes
I’m not sure any player in an orange and blue uniform had a good game against the Nuggets, and that’s the first time I’ve said that all season. Not great, Bob.
RJ Barrett did show some flashes in the first half after missing the last game and a half with a stomach bug, but failed to get onto the floor in the fourth quarter. Tom Thibodeau seemingly threw a little shade at the third-year wing after the loss:
When the Knicks re-signed Nerlens Noel, there was thought that the team would boast 48 minutes of elite rim protection with Mitchell Robinson now healthy. I’m not sure either of them can play 24 minutes a night right now, due to their own respective vices.
To my last point — another night, another (two, actually) stretch five going off against the Knicks. Nikola Vucevic had 27 points and five made threes in New York’s loss to Chicago, and Nikola Jokic had 32 points and three made threes on Saturday.
Taj Gibson didn’t play, at all. What the fuck, Thibs.
If you see betting odds on Gibson starting at center against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday, I’d take them. That’s how ass backwards this season has been.
Julius Randle finished with 24 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds in 35 minutes against Denver, with 9/4/1 of that coming in a fourth quarter spent chasing the ghost of what was once deemed a winnable game. And he still had to work twice as hard as Jokic. Easily.
Three-point regression isn’t even the term. A Nuggets team shooting 34% on 36 attempts from deep this season hit 20 out of their 46 3-point tries. And yeah, a majority of them were wide fucking open.
I bring you my mood board from immediately following the game:
The first photo? An admittance that the New York Knicks can’t trick me anymore. And they shouldn’t trick you either. This team, as constructed, as it performs, is no contender.
The second photo? A realization that as a fanbase, we set ourselves up for this disappointment of a season as much as the front office did with its offseason agenda.
My favorite photo, the third photo, is a great screen grab of Tom Thibodeau during today’s game. Credit to Alex Wolfe, Editor and Chief.
And the last photo, well, it’s self explanatory. This shit sucks.
Up next, the New York Knicks, losers of three straight and four of their last five, will take on a San Antonio Spurs team on Tuesday that’s won four straight on the road.
Tall order? You’re damn straight.
Because we’re in a funk right now.
