Bye Bye Brooklyn

The Knicks swept their two-game series against the Nets thanks to yet another high level display of passing and a continually evolving defense.

Good morning! What a great weekend for local basketball fans. The Knicks got two wins, but the Nets made a representative showing at MSG while improving their lottery odds. Everybody wins.

(Well, everybody won except the Nets in the literal sense.)

Game 13: Knicks 114, Nets 104

• The Knicks used a 20-4 first half run to overcome a slow start and take control of the game even though the feisty Nets hung around until the final minutes

• Jalen Brunson was the only Knick starter not to score at least 20 point, but he chipped in 10 assists on an off shooting night

• New York aggressively hedged against pick & rolls far more than they have in any game this season, mostly with positive results.

• KAT was back and was highly effective in all facets on offense, although he had a scary moment late in the third when he fell on his back but remained in the game.

• With Deuce out, Pacome Dadiet stuck in the rotation but Ariel Hukporti did not.

• Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart played the entire second half

The Knicks are back over .500.

That isn’t an accomplishment anyone thought would be worth celebrating before the season began, but given the immense amount of inconsistency New York has shown over the first four weeks, it’s at least worth a mention.

In no uncertain terms, the first 13 games of these New Look Knicks have been underwhelming. For a team that was supposed to give the franchise its best chance of ending a half century long championship drought, they haven’t played up to expectations. Even the most optimistic among us wouldn’t argue otherwise.

But wins are wins, and in a league that currently features several title contenders at, around, or well below .500, there is no such thing as a meaningless victory.

That will be true in April as much as it is true now, but the difference between now and then is that every one of these early W’s provides a glimpse into the promise of that this group could be. Last night was no exception.

Facing off against a Nets team that doesn’t know it’s supposed to be tanking for Cooper Flagg, the Knicks had their work cut out for them for most of 48 minutes. That was especially true because Jalen Brunson cooled off significantly after cooking the Nets in Friday’s fourth quarter, making just 3-of-14 from the field.

In a way though, Brunson’s off night coupled with the Knicks shooting just 32.5 percent from deep were the most impressive parts about this win. Last year, as Jalen went, so went the Knicks, who also relied heavily on their ability to make threes, going just 4-16 in games they failed to top 32 percent from behind the arc.

Not so with this year’s edition. The poor shooting night from JB and everyone else from deep just meant they had to generate offense in other ways, and they did so by tapping into the passing game, generating 33 assists on 43 made shots. That’s their second highest total of the young season and the sixth time in 13 games they’ve had at least 30 dimes. Last season, they topped 33 assists only three times. The year before, just twice.

This is how an offense that has finished top-10 in two straight seasons continues to evolve. At the center of that evolution are two men who have become fast friends in the new look offense:

With three more assists to OG Anunoby last night, Karl-Anthony Towns has now dimed up his frontcourt partner a dozen times this season. That’s more than he’s assisted anyone else on the roster.

Towns was one of four Knicks with at least six assists, joining Brunson (10), Josh Hart (8) and Cam Payne (6 in just 17 minutes). It just goes to show how many ways this offense can beat you.

And when the defense doesn’t key in on Towns in a way that opens up the passing game? Well then he can just punish you in other ways, as he did to the Nets repeatedly on Sunday:

All in all, the league’s third ranked offense continues to show steady signs of progress from an already elevated baseline. Picturing what they could be with a few months of chemistry under their belt is a frightening thought.

But we also know that’s not what anyone is worried about, which brings us to the other encouraging development from this win.

While the defense was by no means perfect, New York managed to limit Brooklyn’s 10th ranked attack far more than they had in the previous outing thanks to two big changes. For one, OG spent most of his time guarding Cam Thomas, who scored just 16 points on 11 attempts. Second, the Knicks were much more aggressive at the level of the screen:

There were still more open threes than you’d like, usually the result of a hedge that didn’t cut off the head of the snake like you’d expect, but this is a work in progress. 30 free throws for the Nets was also a lot, but yesterday’s whistle was certainly the most one-sided of the season, so we’ll take that number with a grain of salt.

On an individual level, we saw some really strong defensive stands from two surprising places. Pacome Dadiet had the Garden buzzing with this one-on-one sequence in particular…

…but he was solid as a rock throughout his entire stint.

And then there is the man who almost no one (outside of maybe his parents) wanted to see play after the Hukporti Huxplosion on Friday night.

Jericho Sims has been much maligned through the first 13 games, but his play has improved considerably of late, and yesterday was arguably his strongest performance of the season. He had his own one-on-one showcase late in the fourth as Brooklyn was trying to mount one final push, shutting down Dennis Schroder on a switch and ultimately blocking his shot attempt out of bounds. Huk’s day may be coming, but that day is not today.

With Brooklyn dispatched, it’s now on to the Wizards to hopefully complete a 3-1 home stand. With all of the non-JB/KAT starters playing at least 40 minutes, there’s never been a better time to get an easy win ahead of a tough west coast swing.

If they keep moving the ball like they did yesterday, it shouldn’t be a problem

💫 Stars of the Game 💫

⭐️ Karl-Anthony Towns

⭐️ ⭐️ Josh Hart

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ OG Anunoby

Grouping them together because picking the order of the top three was impossible.

Let’s start with OG, who is averaging 20 points on 50/40/80 shooting splits over his last nine games. Anunoby nearly topped that total in the first half alone against Brooklyn, as he came out aggressively taking advantage of every opportunity he was given. He has been the third best and third most important player in this offense and it isn’t particularly close.

With that being said, he ought to give half of one of his stars to the guy feeding him so many of these good looks:

If you’re someone who feels that even more of the offense should move through KAT, yesterday’s win provided you with a good bit of additional evidence.

And then of course there is Josh Hart, who put up 20, 8 & 8 like it was nothing. His fingerprints were all over this victory in every way, and it’s just not because he played 46 minutes - highest in the NBA this season by a player in a regulation game.

(Bridges is now second on that list with 45 minutes played last night. I hope these guys have comfortable beds.)

Final Thought

We’re nearly four weeks into the season and the Knicks have more wins than the Bucks and Sixers combined.

All things considered, that’s not a bad way to start things off.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”