Holiday Heartbreak

The Knicks fought hard against the Thunder but found only pain in their Easter baskets by the time the final buzzer sounded.

Good morning.

That hurt.

Game 74: Knicks 112, Thunder 113

In a New York minute…

This was all about defense from the start, with the Knicks holding OKC to a season-low 17 first quarter points and using a 9-0 run to go up 22-17 after one. The Thunder found their footing in the second behind the unstoppable Jalen Williams, who helped stake Oklahoma City to a four-point halftime lead, but a 5-for-5 start from downtown after halftime propelled New York to a 12-point advantage late in the third. Another weak bench showing not only let OKC back in the game, but saw them take a brief 8-point lead with under five to go.

Still, New York refused to go away quietly. After several hectic minutes, the Knicks retook the lead on a Jalen Brunson runner with 4.1 second remaining, but because there was no foul called on an apparent and-one opportunity, the lead was just one. That was enough for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who drained a baseline fadeaway with 1.8 to go to give the Thunder the lead. Brunson got off a shot at the buzzer, but it just missed, and the Knicks came away empty handed.

Three Things

1. Leaving it all on the court. Trying to boil this one down to three things was no easy task. It was as jam-packed as any game the Knicks played this season, with no shortage of storylines that emerged by the time the final buzzer sounded. Perhaps that’s appropriate given how these have been two of the four or five most consistent teams in the NBA since opening night.

The difference is that Oklahoma City was whole, with the only dent in their armor coming in the form of Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, who was presumably at less than full health after missing the previous two games with a quad injury.

The Knicks, quite obviously, are a tad more dinged up.

Following another set of uninspiring updates on Julius Randle and OG Anunoby before the game and Josh Hart saying afterwards that he’s approaching the rest of this season as if the injured guys won’t be back at all, it’s fair to wonder if this is just what it’s going to be for them from now on. If that’s the case, they’ll continue to operate at a significant deficit compared to other teams in the hunt for home court advantage.

Just don’t expect them to feel sorry for themselves, as this group continues to reach new levels of perseverance. Following the rare shoddy first half on Friday night, New York came out yesterday with a level of defensive focus that we’ve rarely seen this season, holding the league’s fourth ranked offense to 75 points through three quarters. Buoyed by a special effort from Deuce McBride on SGA and everyone else falling in line from there, it was as inspiring a showing as they’ve put forth all year.

That things got away from them a bit in the fourth quarter is more a testament to the Thunder’s aptitude than anything else (although the failure of New York’s bench is a close second, which we’ll get to in a bit). Even then, after allowing a 10-point lead to turn into an eight-point deficit, they never let go of the rope.

Teams can only take so many body blows before they start to get down on themselves, and this is now two straight heartbreakers in one weekend with a trip to Miami on the docket. Their resilience will be tested to new degrees.

Then again, that’s been the case for more than two months. Why would anything change now?

2. Foul Play. Using this as a catchall category for a few issues we saw pop up in the fourth quarter - none greater than the non-call on New York’s final basket before the SGA game winner:

My friends, we have fully and completely lost the plot.

It is one thing to decide as a league that you’re not going to allow certain forms of contact initiation to result in the blowing of a whistle. It is quite another to swallow said whistle on plays where illegal contact is clear as day.

Yes, the Knicks took more free throws than the Thunder, 34-24, and yes, the Knicks did themselves no favors by missing 11 of those attempts, including a tortuous seven in the fourth quarter alone. But none of that has anything to do with the above play, which arguably decided the game in Oklahoma City’s favor.

A missed call and missed freebies weren’t the only source of fourth quarter frustration. The Knicks had only two previous losses this season after they were leading going into the fourth quarter, but they managed to hit just 7-of-23 from the field in the final frame last night while the Thunder were 15-of-19. It was a heady showing from a very young team over a veteran group that picked a bad time to go cold.

Of course, not all blame should be doled out equally here…

3. More bench woes. On Friday night, the Knicks lost the game by four even though they outscored San Antonio by 20 in Jalen Brunson’s 43 minutes of action.

Last night, in a game the Knicks lost by a single point, they outpaced the Thunder by 17 in Brunson’s 35 minutes of court time.

While this is not a new problem (and as I wrote last month, is one that has existed since the beginning of last season) it is a problem that the Detroit trade was supposed to help remedy.

Somehow, it has gotten worse.

Since February 10, which was when Bogey and Burks debuted as Knicks, there is a discrepancy of nearly 23 points per 100 possessions between when Jalen plays and when he sits, and it manifests almost entirely on the offensive end of the court:

• On court: 667 minutes, 120.5 OFF RTG, 109.6 DEF RTG, + 10.9 net

• Off court: 394 minutes, 99.4 OFF RTG, 111.2 DEF RTG, - 11.9 net

Never has this phenomenon been more prevalent than yesterday. Brunson sat with 2:41 to go in the third and the Knicks up by 12. When he returned with 7:42 remaining, the lead was only one.

Tom Thibodeau, seemingly heeding years’ worth of requests to more carefully manage the minutes of his star players, is trying to be responsible with his MVP candidate by not over-extending his court time. It’s hard to blame him. Without Brunson, quite clearly, they are nothing.

But it also goes without saying that without a significant uptick in the bench productivity, a Knicks team without OG Anunoby and Julius Randle will likely be underdogs in any playoff series they’re in, with the youthful (and shooting-challenged) Magic the one possible exception.

One way or another, something’s gotta give. Either a) the injured guys defy Josh Hart’s expectations and return to the court, b) Bogey and Burks show up and play some serious ball, or c) this season is going to end a lot sooner than anyone would like.

Play of the Day

On Friday night, Jalen Brunson passed the ball to Deuce McBride with the game on the line. The shot missed and the game went into overtime, but it showed how much faith the team has in its third year combo guard who continues to make believers out of even his harshest critics.

Well last night, with New York in equally desperate need of a bucket, Brunson again kicked it to McBride behind the arc.

This time, he came through with flying colors.

Given New York’s difficulty stopping the OKC offense in the fourth, if this shot doesn’t fall, the Knicks were almost certainly dead in the water. Because it dropped through, they at least had a fighting chance until the very end.

💫 Stars of the Game 💫

Before we get to today’s Stars, I know I’ve been diligent about keeping the SOTG consistent regardless of how good or bad certain performances may have been. Through this weekend, every game featured a 3-star, 2-star and 1-star recipient. Well, Jalen’s getting all six ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ from Friday’s game.

What can I say. Dude dropped 61.

As for tonight…

⭐️ Jalen Brunson: Gets it over Josh Hart, who had 13 points, 15 boards and six dimes, but also had four turnovers, including two in the fourth quarter, one of which came in the last three minutes and led directly to a tie-breaking 3-pointer by the Thunder.

Not that Brunson is without fault. Aside from an off night from the field (25 shots to get his 30 points), he missed 4-of-8 from the line, including three in the fourth quarter. The silver lining is that after the first two of those misses, a Hart offensive rebound led to JB’s game-tying 3-pointer with 3:33 to go, and after the third miss, I-Hart grabbed the offensive board which eventually led to Brunson’s go-ahead bucket with four seconds remaining.

And then of course there’s the usual discrepancy between the minutes Jalen plays and the minutes he sits, which is high comedy at this point.

⭐️ ⭐️ Isaiah Hartenstein: The unsung hero of this game, and really, of this season.

I mentioned how well the Knicks have played over the last seven weeks with Brunson on the court, outscoring teams by 10.9 points per 100 possessions. With I-Hart in the game, that number is 11.6, putting he and Jalen in a class by themselves in this metric among full time rotation players.

He was so good in this game, I’m planning on dedicating tomorrow’s newsletter to Hartenstein’s exploits, as well as those of another unsung hero…

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Deuce McBride: Just as I was heartbroken for Jalen Brunson that the Knicks couldn’t pull out Friday’s game, I’m equally distraught for McBride today, not only because they didn’t get the win, but because he’s catching some strays for the SGA game winner.

Not that anyone is saying McBride could have defended the play much better. Instead, there was some thought that Deuce shouldn’t have been guarding Gilgeous-Alexander there in the first place, and that one of New York’s 6'4" wings should have been given the assignment instead.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but if ever a player had earned the right to defend the guy everyone knew was going to take the last shot, it was McBride last night. For 47 minutes and 58 seconds, he put the clamps on SGA to a degree that the likely MVP runner up hasn’t seen very often. It was symbolic of everything this team has stood for: hanging tough against all odds.

Toss his 19 points on top of three steals and countless other game-tilting defensive possessions, and McBride more than earns the top spot here.

Tip-Ins…

🏀 There was a funny moment in the second quarter when, after seeing his usual degree of contact early on without any fouls being called, Brunson played to the crowd after the ref finally blew a whistle to send him to the line:

It’s starting to get a little ridiculous.

🏀 Sure enough, shortly after this play, Brunson was knocked down to the ground and no foul was called. He was slow to get up and seemed to be limping a bit after he did. After briefly heading to the locker room by himself, he returned and seemed OK, even though he was still walking a little gingerly for a while.

🏀 On the whole, whistles and free throws were the story of the game. In addition to the no call on Brunson at the end, there were three reviews for flagrant fouls, including one that was upgraded to a flagrant two after Kenrich Williams tried to decapitate Isaiah Hartenstein in the fourth quarter. Coaches were also 3-for-3 on challenges (two for OKC, one for New York). On top of all that, the teams combined to miss a dozen free throws in the fourth quarter alone.

Wild game, but a classic nonetheless.

🏀 Mitch sat out after sustaining an ankle injury in San Antonio. Alex Burks (sigh) made his return, going 2-for-8.

Standings Check In

Cleveland lost to Denver, so the Knicks remain a half game back of third place. Philly and Miami both won, making the race for 6th a little tighter.

Tonight: Brooklyn heads to Indy while Portland travels to Orlando.

Up Next…

A date with the Heat on Tuesday night.

Final Thought

Thought Friday was the toughest loss of the season.

It held that title for less than 48 hours.

Hope Josh is just joshing about the guys who are out.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”