Life Without Brunson Begins with a Loss

New York got a rude awakening to its new reality.

Good morning. If you were doing something more fun than watching the Jalen Brunson-less Knicks last night, I got you covered.

Game 63: Clippers 105, Knicks 95

• The Knicks came out of the gate looking like they might never score a point, but rallied with 10 straight after a 9-0 Clippers start

• The game of runs continued with a 9-0 LA spurt to end the 1st followed by a 12-0 run by New York and then a 16-4 Clips run to wrangle back control before the half

• LA’s hot outside shooting finally cooled off in the 3rd, but the Knicks’ offense bogged down and they couldn’t take advantage, trailing by one entering the 4th

• A 6-0 run to start the final period was all the Clippers needed to keep New York at arms’ length the rest of the way as they scored just 41 second half points.

With the news coming down early Friday evening that an update on Jalen Brunson’s sprained ankle would be provided in approximately two weeks, reality fully set in that the home stretch of New York’s up and down season would be the most challenging one yet.

Even with Ian Begley’s optimistic report that there’s much more positivity surrounding the injury than was initially feared, the assumption still has to be that the Knicks will play the majority of their final 20 games without their Captain.

How did they do in their first crack at overcoming his absence? About as well as you’d expect.

Here’s 10 thoughts on Game 1 of the No-JB era…

🏀 Let’s start off on a positive note: Regarding the Knicks’ inability to score without their superstar, I’m not sure that New York’s piddling offensive output against the Clippers is the definitive text on that front.

For one, LA has the fourth best defense in the league this season, and they showed why in this game. They’re incredibly switchable, which is the sort of defense that has given the Knicks the most fits, and they routinely placed big wings on Karl-Anthony Towns throughout the game. They’re also sixth in the NBA in opponents’ turnover rate, and sure enough, New York wound up conceding 16 points off of 15 giveaways. Coached up on defense by the legend Jeff Van Gundy, LA was fully prepared to exploit every weakness they confronted.

Perhaps just as importantly, the Knicks executed about as poorly on offense as they’re capable of. With the number of shots that came up short from all quadrants of the court, my guess is that it had something to do with this being the second night of a back to back following a game where all of the non-Deuce starters played at least 42 minutes.

In scoring their second fewest points in 63 games, New York also had their second lowest effective field goal percentage of the season, hitting just 38.5 percent of shots and 26.5 percent from deep. Non-Mikal Bridges starters combined to shoot 20-of-62 from the field for 55 points. There were several good looks that simply didn’t go down.

With more rest and more time to adjust to their new reality, I’d expect that to change.

🏀 Even with all that lipstick, Wilbur is still staring us in the face.