Signature Win.

Seemingly against the odds, the Knicks showed us who they were in LA.

Good morning!

If you went to bed early, you missed a good one….

Game 26: Knicks 114, Lakers 109

Sorry Fido, but the real dawgs in this game had NEW YORK across their chest.

In a New York minute…

Displaying a completely different mindset from the opening tip, the Knicks bore down and defended like their jobs depended on it. That attitude plus a dominant early performance from Julius Randle had the Knicks up 11 midway through the second. An LA push gave the Lakers the halftime lead as things remained neck and neck through the third, but that’s when an IQ-led 15-2 run gave the road team some breathing room. The Lakers made things tense a few times in the fourth quarter, but some heady shot-making by Jalen Brunson and more stellar defense was enough to get the win.

Three Things

1. D-Fence. Finally. The Knicks had a 106.9 defensive rating last night, which is their lowest in nine games, and fourth lowest in their last 19. The other three came against Washington, Charlotte, and in a game their opponent completely evaporated in the fourth quarter, Miami. All told, last night was arguably the best they have looked defensively in any game this year, and you didn’t need any stats - advanced or otherwise - to know it.

From the opening tip, it was evident that the Knicks to a man took their recent struggles personally. Even Julius got in on the action:

Closeouts were timely. Rotations were crisp. They battled on almost every screen. They gave max effort on every 50/50 ball. They ended up with a rebounding margin of plus-11 - their second highest of the last 13 games. They only ended up with five steals, but hands were in every passing lane, resulting in a number of deflections that stalled Laker possessions.

Simply put, they wanted this one more - more than the Lakers, and more than they’ve collectively wanted any game in quite some time.