Timberwolves 102, Knicks 101: “Oh he crazy”
The Knicks have blown some games before, and even this season, but this one? To the worst team in the league, after leading by 18? This one was a real embarrassment, writes Matthew Miranda.
Years ago, my car wouldn’t start. I had to have it towed. As the tow truck was heading toward my house, I grew oddly worried that for some reason they wouldn’t be able to access the car, which was in the garage. I have no idea where that fear originated, or how it got past my brain’s “Well that’s stupid” filter. Instead, thinking I was doing the tow driver a solid, I opened the garage door, put the car in neutral, put my hands on the hood and began to push it out of the garage. This is where I should mention the garage was at the top of a downhill driveway that emptied into a major road with two-way traffic. The moment I realized my error, the car began rolling down the driveway.
I’ll spare you the end of the story. It’s no less embarrassing than the set-up, no less embarrassing than the Knicks’ 102-101 collapse in Minnesota last night against the league’s worst team. New York was up 18 in the second quarter and 13 in the fourth. But stupid is as stupid does, and the Knicks did a lot of dumb things late to blow this most winnable of games. The cock-eyed optimist may say “They haven’t blown many games this year, and none as badly as this. Now they’ll be extra motivated for Friday’s game vs. Dallas.” I’m not there yet. This one hurt. This was the kind of loss where you sit and stew in your own juices afterward.
Derrick Rose was absent with a sore ankle, so naturally Immanuel Quickley played just 11 minutes and Frank Ntilikina none. This didn’t seem a big deal early on, when the Knicks were scoring plenty in the paint and in transition.
New York held Minnesota to 28% shooting in the first quarter and pulled further ahead in the second. Obi Toppin made at least one good play for the third straight game, which sounds like damning with faint praise but is honestly just me happy to see him sustaining any kind of positivity. One day at a time, brother.
A 19-3 Knick run saw them go up 18. The Wolves kept chucking and bricking from deep, missing 11 of their first 13 3-pointers. About a third of the way through the game they’d only scored 21 points. But misery loves company, so while Minnesota struggled early, they weren’t alone. Rookie Jaden McDaniels hit four triples in the first half to begin the slow slog to a more sporting scoreline.
The Timberwolves made seven 3-pointers in the second quarter. When the bombs weren’t flying, Anthony Edwards was.
The lead was one at the half, but anxiety was low. The Wolves were 25 games under .500. Karl-Anthony Towns was having a quiet night. D’Angelo Russell was in civvies. Meanwhile, the Knicks were prolific from deep, outshooting the T-Wolves badly from the floor. For much of the night, the two best players on the floor were Julius Randle and RJ Barrett.
Randle was in the current, as my friend Vincent Zangrillo used to write. You ever have the perfect drink or drug hit you juuuuust right on a perfect summer day? You know that flow? That was Randle, whose ability to grab a rebound and push the pace upcourt really paid off in the third. He knew when to pull up from midrange, when to launch from distance, when to kick out to strong side shooters, when to sling to weak side bombardiers, when to throw down the lowdown down low.
Randle hit a last-minute pull-up to put the Knicks up nine. He hit a last-second pull-up to make it 11 entering the final frame. He and RJ scored 18 of New York’s 30 in the third. Hell, Elfrid Payton had 17 in just 20 minutes and Obi Toppin hit his first 3-pointer in more than two weeks. When Barrett got this to fall early in the fourth and the Knicks went up 11, the W felt purely a matter of when and not if.
And then Hubert Davis made an unexpected appearance.
Not the man who spent 1992-1996 as a sweet-shooting shooting guard, but rather the play I remember him for best. No, not this one:
I mean Davis’ infuriating tendency to be the lone defender on a breakaway he had no chance of stopping and compounding his doom by always touching the scorer obviously enough to be whistled for a foul, but nowhere near strong enough to impede them. I’m not sure any Knick ever gifted opponents more and-ones than Hubert Davis. So when Barrett Hubert Davis’d Edwards and the lead dropped from 10 to seven, my heart did too. An Edwards steal and breakaway dunk made it four. Towns cut it to two.
As is often the case, Randle appeared to emerge as the difference maker late, hitting fade-aways from the left and right side to keep it a two-possession game. As is often not, the Knicks’ defense didn’t have any answers. Edwards scored to pull the Wolves within one. His reverse lay-in tied the game. After Taj Gibson’s put-back put the Knicks back up two, Edwards found Malik Beasley open for the 3-pointer that’d give Minnesota their first lead since the opening minutes.
The rookie had a helluva game. But if you, like me, were confused by the Knicks being so concerned that a 39% shooter from the field might tie the game they left a 40% shooter from deep wide open instead, you are not alone.
In the last 30 seconds, Barrett lost his dribble out of bounds, but Reggie Bullock was able to steal the inbounds. Randle missed a jumper and Towns grabbed the rebound, but immediately turned it over to Bullock, who called timeout. The Knicks’ last-second offense has not been a thing of beauty this year. Wednesday night in Minnesota, Medusa was ready for her close-up.
Notes
If the Knicks had won the lottery last year, they pro’ly would have taken LaMelo Ball, which, hey: totally cool. But just from his quotes alone, Anthony Edwards would have had NYC eating out of the palm of his hand.
If Minnesota offered Edwards for RJ straight up, would you do it?
Not sure I have ever seen an NBA big man with skinnier legs than Nerlens Noel.
If Minnesota offered KAT for Mitchell Robinson and both this year’s 1st-round picks — say those picks end up 15 and 20 — would you do it?
Jarrett Culver is nearly a Ntilikina-level beauty. That’s like as rare as Kobe and MJ playing at the same time.
Quoth Edwards: “Oh he crazy.” A pre- or post-pandemic Madison Square Garden would go crazy Friday night when the Knicks host the Dallas Mavericks and a certain tall injury-prone unicorn. Alas, we are the generation lost smack in the middle, so the arena won’t be full-throated. No doubt the 2000 in attendance will make themselves heard.
