The Deuce is Loose

New York's resident pit bull saved a lethargic Knicks team with a career night, but is he the answer at point guard?

Good morning, and Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day. Reminder that the Knicks play at 3pm. Today, I’m going to focus on the Memphis game, but sometime mid-week, I’m going to do a news & rumors catch up on any Knicks related items that have come across the wire in the last several days. Let’s get to it.

Game 39: Knicks 106, Grizzlies 94

H/t @SNY_Knicks

If he’s not happy unless he’s miserable, Thibs must have been a pig in filth on Saturday night.

In a New York minute…

With Jalen Brunson sitting out due to a calf injury, this one started off uglier than an orangutan’s armpit, as the Knicks committed the same number of turnovers (seven) as made field goals over the opening 10 minutes. New York appeared to right the ship after that, but more tomfoolery allowed Memphis to close the half on an 18-9 run and take the lead. Things remained tight after halftime despite a much better effort from the Knicks, until they finally created some distance with a 20-8 run spurred by Isaiah Hartenstein’s energy. It took a bit to finally close the door, but they got the job done without too much drama before all was said and done.

Three Things

1. Keystone Knicks. I mean, I don’t even have the words for what we witnessed throughout much of the first half of this game:

On the ensuing Memphis possession, Josh Hart threw the ball to the wrong team after a John Konchar miss, which was followed by another Grizz miss and an offensive rebound, which then led to a Luke Kennard triple.

This was one of a dozen moments in the first 24 minutes that ranged from uninspiring to downright nauseating. It was an unserious effort from a team that played down to its opponent.

After halftime, the effort and attention to detail mostly turned around, but New York still committed nine turnovers in the second half after farting away 14 in the first two quarters.

Not what you hoped to see without Brunson in the lineup.

2. Road Warriors. Now that I’ve excoriated them for what was an unacceptable effort out of the gate, allow me to shed a little praise, and some context.

Saturday night was New York’s 24th road contest out of 39 total games. Looking at the rest of the top seven teams in the East, none have played more than 20 games away from home, and four have played between 16 and 18 on the road. The Knicks, meanwhile, have played two more road games than any team in the league, yet still managed a .500 record away from the Garden despite such a strenuous schedule.

The hope now is that their 11-4 record at MSG is a sign of things to come as they play 12 of their next 14 at home.

3. The D is back? For the third time since acquiring OG Anunoby, the Knicks held their opponent under 95 points after doing so only twice in the previous 32 games. They are not only the top defense in the league over their last seven games, but as of Sunday morning, the gap between them and the second place Timberwolves was equal to the gap between Minnesota and 15th place Philly:

While defense is never about just one person, it’s hard to ignore what the data says about OG Anunoby’s impact.

According to NBA.com/stats, in the last seven games, the Knicks have a 97.4 defensive rating during the 238 minutes Anunoby has played and a 115.2 rating when he’s sat. That gap is nearly double that of the next closest player over that span (Hartenstein, who has a 99.8 on court rating and a 110.8 off court figure).

So…is this real?

With the caveat that any defense can look like a colander on the wrong night (see: the first half in Dallas), New York’s newfangled unit seems mostly legit.

The biggest reason to doubt them is the competition. Among their last seven opponents, the only offenses that rank higher than 20th belong to Philly (5th) and Dallas (10th), and the Mavs were missing their MVP candidate. On the flip side, the Grizzlies and Blazers rank 29th and 30th, and Memphis was even more of a mash unit than usual.

On top of that, even without almost all of their normal rotation players, the Grizzlies put up 57 first half points. It was a reminder of two things: giving a shit matters, even against substandard competition, and the best way to beat New York’s defense is to make them beat themselves.

The Grizzlies scored just 80 points per 100 possessions in the half court on Saturday night, but 129.4 in transition. The vast majority of those transition opportunities came off of steals, which we covered above, but to the Knicks credit, Memphis scored just 109.1 points per 100 possessions after those giveaways. The bigger issue was when the Grizzlies ran off of live rebounds, on which they scored an absurd 166.7 points per 100.

According to Cleaning the Glass, New York is giving up 139.6 points per 100 possessions on transition plays off of live rebounds since OG’s arrival, whereas they were a more respectable 125.5 before.

Based on the early returns, as long as the Knicks take care of the ball, and more importantly, hustle back after a missed shot, there’s no reason this defense can’t remain at or near the top of the league for the foreseeable future.

Play of the Day

This game featured four big fourth quarter buckets, which is four more than it should have:

• A Julius step-back triple with 6:41 to go that ended a 5-0 Memphis run and put the Knicks up by a dozen.

• A Deuce step-back triple with 4:26 to go that felt huge in the moment.

• A Hart triple about a minute later to bring the lead back to 12

• A nail-in-the-coffin middy from McBride to put New York up 10 with a minute left.

My pick:

Much more below on McBride, who finished with 19 points on 10 shots, including 4-of-7 from deep, to go with six rebounds, five assists, a block and a steal. His 3-pointer was New York’s best offense in this game by a wide margin, which is not a thing I thought I’d be writing even a week ago.

💫 Stars of the Game 💫

⭐️ Malachi Flynn: It came down to Flynn and OG Anunoby, who had four costly turnovers and a few additional underwhelming offensive possessions, but was yet again a bear on defense with four blocks and a steal and wound up with a fairly efficient 18 points¹.

I went with Flynn though, mostly because he gave the team a needed shot in the arm during his first half stint, but also because it didn’t feel like he deserved a second half benching. Then again, his 10 first half minutes included three fouls, and while he was 4-of-5 from the field and scored 10 points, the Knicks were outscored (albeit barely) in his time.

⭐️ ⭐️ Isaiah Hartenstein: Add another 42 minutes onto Hartenstein’s ever increasing workload. As of Sunday morning, he was 12th in the league in minutes per game since January 1.

Not that that’s his only impressive stat. After another 20-rebound game in Memphis, I-Hart is averaging 14.7 boards in the new year, which barely trails Jarrett Allen for the league lead. He also had two steals and four blocks against the Grizzlies, making him the only player in the NBA averaging multiple steals and multiple blocks since January 1.

As he told Stefan Bondy after the game, “I don’t know why people keep trying to dunk on me.” Me neither:

Simply put, I-Hart has been one of the best 10-15 centers in the league over the last two weeks. The only question is whether he can keep it up while playing far more minutes than he ever has.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Deuce McBride: It feels counterintuitive to praise Deuce McBride for arguably the best game of his young career while simultaneously clutching pearls over New York’s lack of backcourt playmaking outside of Jalen Brunson. What gives?

I think the genesis of the conflict comes from the fact that while McBride has inarguably performed well, he’s not a point guard in the modern sense of the term. In other words, he struggles to penetrate the defense and get downhill towards the hoop.

Take this game, in which only two of Deuce’s 10 shots came in the paint. The first was when he parlayed an early shot clock Hartenstein screen into a long runway to the basket, and even then, needed to fully extend and go high off the glass to avoid Xavier Tillman, who was with him step for step.

This was the second paint shot of the evening:

It’s a beautiful, twirling finish off the glass to avoid Tillman’s outstretched hand, but like the first shot, it’s an awful lot of work to hit pay dirt.

Looking at Deuce’s five assists, two were delivered from the paint, albeit barely: on both his kick back to OG for a top-of-the-arc triple and his dish to a cutting Randle, McBride barely crossed the free throw line.

Even on his prettiest dime, a nifty pass around two defenders to his mind-meld buddy I-Hart, we didn’t see the sort of penetration you’d typically get on a pick and roll:

It all begs the question of whether a modern offense can succeed without someone who can tilt the floor in the way that so many point guards do, especially given how much modern officiating favors offensive perimeter players. In the eight games the Knicks have played without Quickley, the Knicks have scored just 106.5 points per 100 possessions in the 132 minutes McBride has been on the floor. That’s barely tenable for two six-minute stints a half, let alone an entire game. If Brunson misses more time, it’s a major issue.

At the same time, with this level of outside shooting (48 percent from deep this season!), it’s clear that McBride is good enough to be an NBA rotation player. The challenge for New York’s front office may be whether they can find a trade that adds the requisite juice to the backup unit without relegating Deuce to the pine.

The trade deadline is 25 days away….

Tip-Ins…

🏀 Donte DiVincenzo had his first poor shooting game in a while, hitting just 3-of-11 from downtown as he was generally out of sorts all night (although he scored eight straight points during the game-deciding 20-8 run in the second half).

Even on an off night, DDV played 33 minutes to Quentin Grimes’ 15. Granted, Grimes finished just 1-of-5 from the field, but he gave them some good first half minutes before seeming to press a bit after halftime.

The writing might be on the wall. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Grimes’ name in trade rumors as soon as this week.

🏀 The less said about Julius Randle’s outing, the better - he had six turnovers, needed 21 shots to get his 24 points, and came out with a tone-setting lethargy that nearly undid his team - but at least he copped to what we all saw. Per Bondy:

“I was awful. I was terrible. I’m not going to lie, I was terrible. It was just a sluggish game, all around sloppy. But we found a way to get the win.”

In fairness, it wasn’t just Julius at fault. Josh Hart had one of his worst games of the season, while DiVincenzo and Anunoby were far less than their best. It doesn’t change the fact that the Knicks need more from their horse, especially in games Brunson sits out.

🏀 While we’re on the topic of soundbites, this anonymous quote from Steve Popper’s Sunday column certainly made the rounds:

People were understandably losing their minds over the “softies” comment in reference to all three players, but especially Immanuel Quickley. If he’s soft, I’m Santa Clause.

The reason I’m not getting worked up is because whoever gave the quote is a human being, and human beings routinely say stupid shit without fully thinking it through (not that I would know anything about that, of course). Also, the source seemed to be focusing on the players here after the trade, and the “softies” line was less a shot at IQ, RJ and Obi and more an offhanded (albeit very poorly worded) way to praise the current group.

And even with all the context, it was a shitty thing to say. More importantly, it’s flat out incorrect.

Up Next…

The Knicks begin their month-long residency at MSG with a 3pm game against the Magic today. Jalen Brunson is QUESTIONABLE while Franz Wagner is OUT for Orlando. Here’s the link for the halftime zoom.

Final Thought

The All-Star break begins one month from today. Crazy how time flies.

Something tells me that the roster will look a little different when we get to that point. Regardless of whether they do or don’t, the next 30 days will define their season.

Time to protect their house.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

1. Check out Benjy’s tweet for a look at two nice DHO possessions by OG. His creation game has been underwhelming, but that doesn’t mean the Knicks can’t find better ways to use him in the half court besides just being a threat from the corner.