Double Trouble

On a night of several records, including two triple doubles, New York's second half defense was the true star of the show.

Good morning! Fun win last night that started off more stressful than we expected. No rest for the weary though, as the Clips come to town tonight. James Harden is listed as questionable, but everyone else of note is good to go for LA. I’ll be on halftime again, but will be off the next two games, so come by and say hello.

Game 71: Knicks 128, Mavs 113

• With no Jalen Brunson, Deuce McBride or Mitchell Robinson, Tyler Kolek was once again called into action as Thibs went with an eight-man rotation.

• New York put on a passing clinic to start, assisting on 13 of their first 14 field goals, but they were just as free flowing on the other end, putting up Charmin-level resistance to Naji Marshall and the Mavs in the first half.

• The Knicks came out with far more defensive aggression after halftime, holding Dallas to 16 third quarter points and taking control of the game.

• Briefly up by 26 in the fourth, garbage time commenced with about four minutes remaining.

Tuesday night’s win over the Dallas Mavericks was, without question, a game of headlines.

We had Josh Hart setting the single season Knick record with his ninth triple double of the year, surpassing a mark Walt “Clyde” Frazier has held for more than half a century.

We had Karl-Anthony Towns joining Hart with his own triple double, making them the first pair of Knick teammates to ever achieve that honor in the same game, and just the 20th pair of teammates to do so in NBA history.

We had the Knicks as a group hitting the 40-assist mark for the 17th time in franchise history and the third time this season, tying the ‘65-66 team and the ‘77-78 team for the most times doing so in a single 82-game campaign.

We had Tyler Kolek dishing nine assists and committing no turnovers one game after notching eight dimes with no giveaways, making him just the 9th NBA rookie ever to have consecutive games with at least eight assists and no turnovers¹, and the first to do so playing less than 20 minutes a game.

And we had the Knicks making shots like nobody’s business, hitting at least 59 percent from the field for the third time since October - the first time they’ve reached that level of efficiency three times in the same season in 30 years.

Even with all those accolades, the top takeaway from this win wasn’t on the offensive end of the floor.

Hart and Towns filling up the stat sheet, Kolek looking like a young Mark Jackson, the team passing and shooting their way to a dominant offensive outing…none of this is particularly surprising. We know what this group is capable of, both as individuals and as a collective unit. We know because we’ve seen it before (even if, in Kolek’s case, that was mostly in summer league and the preseason, much to the chagrin of many in the fan base). Putting it all together in the same game, even without the Captain, was just a matter of good timing.

But after New York’s defensive showing in the first half, when they gave up 68 points to a Mavs team missing their three leading scorers, what transpired after halftime was nothing short of shocking.