The Knicks’ back-to-back games at Madison Square this past Sunday and Monday are a microcosm of their season thus far, illustrating both their championship potential and areas of vulnerability.
On Sunday, the Knicks looked like world beaters, dismantling the Milwaukee Bucks by a 34-point margin in a 140-106 win. The next night, they were undone by a younger, more collectively athletic team as the ascending Detroit Pistons executed with more precision on both ends of the court in the game’s closing minutes to secure a 124-119 victory over the Knicks.
The Pistons appeared to have more lively legs and attacked the Knicks on the offensive end from all three levels, getting to the rim, creating from mid-range led by guard Cade Cunningham’s 36 points, and draining crushing late-game 3-pointers, two by guard Malik Beasley, who was 6-8 from behind the line overall. The Knicks have been susceptible to quick, long, athletic teams with deeper benches and the Pistons fit that description
“They [Detroit] hit shots when they had to,” said Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, who finished the evening with a strong 26-point, 12-rebound effort but was called for a detrimental offensive foul setting a screen for Jalen Brunson with one minute remaining and his team down by just 118-117.
“We could sit here and talk about all the things we could’ve done, but we just didn’t do it. It cost us the game.”
Towns’s statement of fact rings loudly. The Knicks had moments to seize control of the game, as they have in many of their other losses, yet did not capitalize on those moments.
“Obviously there is a lot that we wish we could’ve done,” Towns said reflecting on the Knicks season, which reached the 41-game midpoint mark on Monday. “Games we want back, ways we could have executed in different ways late in the game, but to be in the spot we are in, I think we are on the right direction…”
When the NBA schedule began last night, the Knicks, which faced the Philadelphia 76ers on the road, were 26-15 and in a solid position in the standings at No. 3 in the Eastern Conference. The only teams ahead of them were the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers (34-5), which had the league’s best record, and the defending NBA champion No. 2 Boston Celtics at 28-11.
“We are losing games that I feel like we shouldn’t be losing,” lamented Knicks guard/forward Josh Hart.
“We got to figure it out. We are halfway into the season at this point. Nothing we can do about the first half now. Now all we got to do is focus on the second.”
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau had a similar take.
“Well, I think we’re better than we were when we first started, the first month of the season, second month better. And then there’s still a long way to go,” he said. “So there’s ups and downs, And then hopefully in the end, you’re playing your best basketball. So, there’s still a lot of things we can do better and have to lock into.”
The Knicks will host the Minnesota Timberwolves at MSG tomorrow night and the Atlanta Hawks on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (3:00 p.m.) at home on Monday.