Prez takes you through the blueprints, the evidence & the fallout from the Knicks losing in Houston

Back in the beforetimes, when I worked in the office five days a week, I would usually commute by train. D.C. isn’t a huge NBA town these days, thanks to the Wizards’ ineptitude, but the greater DMV area remained – and remains – a basketball hotbed. As such, it wasn’t uncommon to hear people on the train talking hoops on the way to or from work. Sometimes I’d lower the volume on my music and eavesdrop, to see if said traingoers did in fact know ball. More often than not, a few minutes of Stephen A. Smith-induced talking points had me turning the volume back up. I’d chuckle, equally annoyed and disappointed, and go back to debating hoops digitally in group chats or on Twitter. 

But that’s a smug-ass attitude to take, full of assumption and hubris — not unlike the attitude the Knicks took entering last night’s 109-97 loss in Houston, after a full weekend’s rest versus a Rockets team fresh off a victory arguably being stolen from them. In reality, there are always multiple ways to view a game. X’s and O’s and tactics and execution are my favorite lens. Another view which we (the collective NBA internet “we,” at least) like to assign more value to is the numerical and sometimes more objective realm of analysis, analytics. Finally, a third lens is the relational part of hoops – as in, relationships between the players competing and fighting. 

This is a sport played by human beings. When Jalen Brunson gets repeatedly mugged in the paint, especially by walking thornbushes like Dillon Brooks, he can respond by adjusting or by refusing to acknowledge that Brooks’ strategy, referee-aided-and-abetted or not, was successful. He choose the latter. How much of that is because of how Brunson views Brooks? Or himself? Or the refs? Perceived relationships matter in hoops. I stand by it! 

Accordingly, I’m gonna take this recap through those three different paths to summarize the disappointment and missed opportunity, among other observations, from the loss.

Numbers From the Analytics Department

• The Knicks were outrebounded 60-45. 60 is a lot of fucking rebounds! 

• The Rockets outscored the Knicks 62-38 in the paint. That’s a massive number of points in the paint, derived from the Rockets’ unique mix of offensive rebounding prowess (second in the league in OREB rate at 38%) and athleticism in the open court.

• Houston didn’t take (32) – or make (8) – many threes. 

• Fortunately for them, the Knicks took even fewer (11-for-28), with OG Anunoby responsible for about half of the makes and Mikal Bridges for nearly 30% of the attempts. Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns combined for a whopping six attempts.

• After this game, KAT has five pick-and-pop 3-point attempts all season. Kristaps Porziņģis would average that many per half.

• The Rockets’ bench outscored the Knicks’ 30-3. 

• Deuce McBride went 0-for-9 from the field. 

• Deuce McBride is now 3-for-23 on drives. 

• Alperin Șengün was a remarkable 11-of-12 inside the arc. 

• Brunson’s 9-of-24 from the field was mitigated slightly by his going 9-of-9 from the line.

• Knicks players fell down on attempted layups at least ten times, leaving their teammates defending 5-on-4 against transition attacks. Brunson was responsible for about half of those instances.

• KAT played most of the game with three or four fouls, two of which were extremely silly. 

Observations From the Coach’s Desk

• The Rockets’ plan was to run. Off makes, misses and more. In particular, they packed the paint and ran off of Knicks missed layups, daring the Knicks to assemble their defense on the fly in transition. In theory, the Knicks playing 5-out should guard against that a bit with more of the offense coming from deep. And yet Towns was out with foul trouble, and when he was in he or Hart would frequently crash the offensive glass unsuccessfully, leaving New York behind the starting gun versus Houston’s foot race. To make matters worse, the wings stayed in the corner rather than lifting up to the free-throw line extended during Brunson and KAT drives, leaving them a few seconds behind Rockets players as well.

• The Rockets also made a point of switching, and guys like Brooks and Amen Thompson held their own against KAT at times, while the Knicks hunted mismatches for their ballhandkers.

• The Rockets other plan was to crash the offensive glass. Outside of Fred Van Vleet, their guards are either big (Brooks), athletic (Reed Sheppard and Jalen Green) or both (Thompson). Their wings are also rebound hounds, with guys like Tari Eason and Jabari Smith hitting the glass often. 

• On defense, the Knicks began the game in deep drop, daring Șengün and Van Vleet to beat them in the short midrange. They obliged, shooting 7-of-9 from there in the opening quarter. 

• Once Jericho Sims was in, the Knicks mixed up their coverage and had him and Bridges trapping FVV very far out, daring the Rockets to beat them 4-on-3 with *checks notes* elite short-roll playmaking star center Alperin Șengün. Even if that was the game plan, the Knicks’ execution of rotations after the trap were consistently sluggish and filled with miscommunication.

• The Rockets dared Brunson to drive against physicality and amongst taller wings, over and over. While he did miss shots he normally makes, he was also overthinking Thibs’ game plan and passing up open midrange pullups to probe further into the paint. He is very much still finding a balance between using the newfound 5-out space to score more at the rim and to score more from his bread-and-butter short midrange area. He played a lil’ bit like RJ Barrett today. That is not a compliment. 

• KAT needs to pop to shoot more. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Don’t always need to go full drive-and-score mode.

• Once KAT had multiple fouls, his ‘’defense’’ on Șengün was entirely devoid of jumping. He was essentially a practice defender. 

• Thibs tried OG on Șengün, to no avail. 1-on-1 he cooked OG. Help defense from KAT and other Knicks was token at best.

Rants from a Fan

I grew up on sports biographies borrowed from public libraries in the Norwood area of the Bronx and on 660 WFAN AM callers. Both tend to lean towards the relational narrative as their primary explanatory vehicle for hoops. Some players “stepped up.” Others have “grit.” Others cower or hide. Sometimes they are motivated, and rise to meet the moment.  Other times less so. And so on and so forth. So what did Prez’ inner WFAN caller see?

• The Knicks began the game assuming the Rockets were less talented. They were in deep drop without even token hands up versus established scorers like FVV and Șengün, showing a lack of respect for the Rockets vets. A refusal to mark younger, more athletic Rockets like Eason, Thompson and Sheppard despite said athleticism being half the scouting report for them showed a lack of respect for the younger Rockets as well.

• If Towns is going to be the primary rim protector, he can’t waste fouls on offense and then reduce himself to a 7-foot traffic cone at the rim. His entire game, despite gaudy box score numbers and some big rebounds and layups later on, was weird and kind of stupid to me.

• If a team gets physical with you, you either have to get physical back or you have to jiu-jitsu their physicality. In the NBA you can't walk a middle ground. The Knicks tried to, and failed. They’re not physical, but they played dumb-dumb ball on offense too often rather than using the Rockets’' aggression against them.

• Relatedly, Brunson passed up open midrange shots and kick-outs in the name of hunting his own shots at the rim. Over and over again. He’s gotta get his head out of his ass and simplify the game for himself. If we are going to rely on him to score a ton and generate threes for others, he needs to get his inside-the-paint decision-making together.

• Wingstop boys letting it fly from three. I wish the rest of the starters got the memo too.

• OG is a bad man. And although some people don’t like his inside-the-arc adventures, I will continue to encourage and appreciate them. 

• Hart is insane. His first half was filled with missed 3-point attempts and botched defensive plays; his second was a lightning bolt of passes and drives that nearly brought us back into the game.

• I’m motherfucking tired of Mikal just accepting screens and playing from behind. It’s better than dying on screens, and he’s as good as anyone playing from behind ball-handlers, but goddamnit you don’t have to CONCEDE the screen! 

• We saw the worst of Deuce on both ends, despite some dogged defense in the second half. On defense he was regularly sonned by larger Rockets on the glass and in the paint. Doesn’t matter how strong you are if you’re 6-foot-1 and jumping with Amen Thompson.

• On offense, Deuce missed his threes but I was less annoyed with that and more with his play inside the arc. He unleashed his first trademark nightmare fuel floater of the year and continued to be absolutely toothless on drives. I know some folks held out hope that he would carry over some momentum from his playoff scoring inside the arc, but if you rewatch his playoff attempts from there you’ll see they were not particularly good, nor sustainable, sadly. It’s a fucking shame he hasn’t yet learned a single reliable inside-the-paint scoring move this far into his career. 

• Sims had some nice moments, including a key successful stand in drop coverage, which is rare for him. However, he also was just fouling all the time, and couldn’t help stop the Knicks bleeding on the boards. Free Ariel Hukporti expeditiously, please.

• If I have to hear ‘’Sims mis-timed his jump!’’ one more time I’m going to barrel roll out of my apartment window.

• Hats off to Fred Van Vleet. That guy is a joy to watch. Șengün may be the best player, Green may be the most electric, but FVV is the straw that stirs Houston’s drink on both ends.