Anatomy of a Comeback
We take one more look back at this weekend's big win.
Good morning! I hope everyone enjoyed the bonus newsletter yesterday. That win was too good to wait until Monday to write about. It was also too big to limit to just one newsletter, so today we go back and revisit just how the Knicks pulled a W out against a team and a player who have had their number.
Game Recap: Knicks 116, Nuggets 110
For as much as we’re no longer surprised by much of anything the Knicks accomplish nowadays, if you zoom out, Saturday’s win was pretty damn impressive. New York was down 13 after getting outscored 52-26 in the span of a little more than a quarter. The team that was drubbing them? Far and away the top seed in the West.
And they wanted this one.
Did that make this the best win of the season? I’ll save that analysis for a later time. For the moment, I’m taking a different approach to the usual postgame format. Instead of the normal breakdown, I want to take a look at how every piece of this comeback reflected a different aspect of what makes the 2022-23 Knicks so special.
Let’s have some fun.
6:31, 3rd Q: The Nuggets had just gone up by a game-high 13 points on a Jamal Murray step-back jumper. Things looked about as dire as they had all day, which, if you’ve been watching these Knicks carefully all season, meant they had Denver right where they wanted them.
There are two things important to point out about the beginning of their comeback.
The first wasn’t something that happened between the sidelines, but just off the court: Tom Thibodeau was called for a technical. The play he was arguing about was an Aaron Gordon driving layup over RJ Barrett that he felt should have been either a travel or an offensive foul. For as fiery as he is on the sidelines, Thibs doesn’t get called for many techs, and when he does, its rarely by accident. It’s not a coincidence the turnaround began almost immediately after his T.
The second was a subtle part of this play that speaks to the changing ethos of this team over the course of the season. After starting off the year playing fast, sticking around the top-10 in pace for about a month, New York has been the slowest team in the NBA since December 4. That date, coincidentally or otherwise, is when their season started to turn around. How their drastic slowdown has coincided with improved play is worthy of a longer conversation, but an obvious byproduct of turning into sloths is that teams are less prepared when they turn on the jets.
As a result, you can get a play like this, where Brunson catches both KCP and Jokic off guard by pushing the pace. Even though he misses, he gets the Kobe assist when Mitch is able to slide in for an easy offensive rebound and put-back.
5:11, 3rd Q: Other than Jalen Brunson coming out of this one with a clean bill of health, the biggest story of this game has to be either the rejuvenation of Mitchell Robinson or the continued rebirth of RJ Barrett.
I use the term “rebirth” intentionally, because amidst his struggles this season, it’s easy to forget that this guy made more restricted area field goals than all but 10 players in the league from December 31, 2021 until the end of last season. Lately, he’s been rediscovering that form, with a 60 percent conversion rate on drives in the five games leading up to yesterday, as DJ Zullo pointed out last week. Against Denver, he recorded eight field goal attempts in the restricted area. He didn’t miss a single one.
This drive on Gordon, of course, didn’t go down as one of those eight attempts because he was fouled. It’s still notable to me though, mostly because it’s a great attempt, foul or no foul - the opposite of the sort of shots we see from Barrett when he’s not confidently (and, more important, fluidly) attacking the rim. Gordon is an All-Defense caliber defender, and he had no answer here for RJ’s first step, followed by a corner turn and full extension towards the rim.
Later on, on a big fourth quarter bucket, Jeff Green had similar issues:
Green is 36 but can still hold his own on defense. He’s seen it all, and doesn’t easily get duped. The 22-year-old had his number here though.
As his supporters constantly tell the haters (raises hand meekly), there is no one else on the Knicks who can execute these sorts of moves regardless of the size of the player guarding them. Randle is a bull, but he doesn’t get downhill like this, and for all of Brunson’s wizardry, 6'1" is still 6'1".
Yesterday, starting early in the third quarter and continuing down the stretch, we saw the peak version of Star-J. Here’s hoping he’s here to stay.
4:04, 3rd Q: Mitchell Robinson. That’s it. That’s the tweet.
Nearly 5000 players have suited up for an NBA game at one point in time over the league’s 76-year history. I’m confident in saying that Mitch is in the top one percent of unique characters among the bunch. Is he an enigma wrapped in a riddle shrouded in mystery? Or is he just a man-child with the sense of humor of mischievous pre-teen? The social media posts, the random in-game crossover, the “Berman, relax”…it all screams of someone who wants to be noticed, at least occasionally, lest anyone forget who they’re dealing with.
One guy who won’t soon forget: the two-time reigning MVP.
In a two-and-a-half minute stretch of the third, Robinson had four offensive rebounds, two tip-ins and a blocked shot. The last of those offensive boards came here, after some nicely executed ball movement resulting in a good look for Randle at the rim. Jokis was in good position to grab the board, but it didn’t matter. When Mitch is at his best, there’s no one in the league who really has a chance.
Best of all, he nailed both from the line to keep the momentum going, and on the very next defensive possession, tapped the ball away from Jokic from behind. That led directly to an Immanuel Quickley three to close the gap to one. Comeback nearly complete, with Robinson serving as the biggest force behind it.
As Thibs said after the game, “We know all the dirty work that he does for the team.” It’s more than that though. Robinson’s skill set is the foundation upon which this roster was built, providing the rim protection and offensive rebounds that serve as the lifeblood of their two-way philosophy.
Sure enough, his defense in the fourth was as big as the shotmaking from Ju, Brun and RJ on the other end. Robinson came up with a key steal of Jokic when the game was tied with three minutes left, and I am convinced that his effort here to disrupt Nikola’s shot after the initial close-out contributed to the miss:
Fittingly, after that perfectly executed pick & roll defense, he was rewarded with the game-sealing alley-oop.
Perfect end to a busy week from the one-of-a-kind Knick.
2:19, 3rd Q: The ideal sixth man in the NBA is someone who checks into a game and can immediately make an impact without needing time to ramp up. Typically, we think of these players as scorers - guys who fire away without a moment’s hesitation.
It might be time to adjust that definition.
When Josh Hart enters a game, the intensity level immediately gets ratcheted up. If you’re not ready for it, you will get run over. It’s why this Saturday quote, after he drew a key offensive foul in a tie game by taking an elbow to the face, was so well-timed:
“I'm probably playing the wrong sport. How I play is physical… If I put on some weight, I feel like I could have been a good defensive end, maybe a linebacker. I like the physicality, you know.”
This was one of a half dozen Josh Hart plays over the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarters that helped set the Knicks up for the stretch run.
And while he may not be a prototypical microwave scorer, he sure does have a sense for when to take - and make - a big shot; his 3-pointer with 2:53 left in the third completed the comeback and tied the game at 88.
2:11, 4th Q: Even after all the inspiring stuff they did over a quarter and a half to snatch the game away from the best team in the West, this one still came down to someone needing to make a tough bucket, with the score tied and just over two minutes left.
70 seconds earlier, Julius bullied Jamal Murray in the post to tie the game at 108 after a Murray three gave Denver back the lead. It was impressive, but as Benjy Ritholtz details here, was the result of a savvy play-call by Thibs out of a timeout.
His next bucket, though? No X’s or O’s involved:
It’s poetic justice that Randle’s bucket ended up being the difference in the game since it was his performance in Denver four months ago that began his individual turnaround this season.
This shot also put a capper on what was the inverse of so many big time Julius games. Usually, he comes out of the gate blazing and is a dominant offensive force through three quarters, only for every fan to close their eyes and hold their breath if he gets the ball in the last five minutes with the score tight. On Saturday, he quietly did his job for three and a half quarters before coming up huge when it mattered most.
New York’s All-Star reminded us all: with the game on the line, he’s anything but afraid
💫 Stars of the Game 💫
⭐️ Josh Hart: Immediately after the game, I thought he’d be the three-star guy due to the immediacy and intensity of his second half impact. He closed the 3rd with what I am deeming the Hart cycle: a forced turnover, a drawn offensive foul, an offensive rebound, and a 3-pointer. He chipped in two more steals at the start of the fourth. The Nuggets did not know what hit them.
His connection with fellow Hart throb Isaiah continues to be a thing of beauty:
Alas, this game belonged to two men more than him.
⭐️ ⭐️ RJ Barrett
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Mitchell Robinson
Essentially a tie for me that I broke as follows: one guy was directly matched up against the two-time MVP, and the other wasn’t.
Going up against Jokic, who is second in the league to Giannis in defensive rebounds per game, Mitch pulled down seven offensive boards. It’s only the second time all season Denver has given up as many offensive rebounds to one player in a game, which is tied for the second lowest total in the league. Mitch also helped limit the Nuggets to 33 rebounds on the day, which tied their second lowest number total for the season. When Thibs said Robinson does the dirty work for them, he wasn’t kidding.
That extraordinary level of play coming off his social media snafu elevates Mitch over RJ here, even though Barrett might have had his most important game of the season, and maybe his most impressive.
RJ has certainly scored more points - 27 times this season, to be exact - but his all-around play might never have been better. Everything, from processing to rebounding to defense to his exceptional finishing, was on point, as Geoff Rasmussen brilliantly details in this thread from yesterday:
Last thing on Barrett: this was the second lowest usage rate RJ has had this season out of the 13 games when he’s had at least a 60 effective field goal percentage. That may seem like an odd stat to highlight, but it showed me how he continued to let the game come to him even though he had it going. Big time progress from the 22-year-old over the last few weeks.
Standings Update
Brooklyn lost and Miami won yesterday. New York is now 2.5 games clear of the Nets and 3.5 up on the Heat while remaining 2.5 back of Cleveland. None of the three are in action tonight.
🏙 Game Night 🏙
Who: Wolves
Where: MSG
When: 7:30 pm
TV: MSG
Personal Injury Report presented by Weiss & Rosenbloom: Everyone is good to go for the Knicks, but the Wolves aren’t quite as lucky. Karl-Anthony Towns remains out, while Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, Jaylen Nowell, Naz Reid, and old buddy Austin Rivers are all Questionable.
Halftime: Click here to enter.
🏀
That’s it for today! If you enjoy this newsletter and like the Mets, don’t forget to subscribe to JB’s Metropolitan, or his hockey newsletter, Isles Fix. See y’all soon! #BlackLivesMatter
I had been cringing when RJ gets to the rim and puts up a shot inside 5 feet because he used to miss many of those, or have them deflected. What I'm seeing now -- and I think this is something new -- is that he's using the glass A LOT more. And it's helping a lot.
Watching the game I was almost certain they were going to call Mitch for a foul on Jokics 3 point attempt that started the play that led to the dunk.
Also, with the way things are going injury wise for Zion and off the court wise for Ja - how much has RJ closed the gap, especially with his play of late.