#WeBack ?

The vibes are once again immaculate.

Good morning! Talk about an early Christmas gift, huh? The Knicks have come back from the brink and have won four games in a row to get back over .500. What a world, what a world…

We’ll get into all that below, but while we’re in the giving spirit, there seems like no better time to run the annual KFS Newsletter Holiday special: subscribe below to get 20 percent off the full edition of the newsletter, so $4 a month or $40 a year:

And if you need a gift idea for that special someone in your life:

Game Recap: Knicks 112, Kings 99

⌚️30 Seconds or Less: Another game, another dominant defensive performance, with the Knicks holding their third opponent in four games to that team’s season low in points. This time the victim was the high-flying Kings, who were without starting point guard De’Aaron Fox but who still presented as a worthy challenge nonetheless.

As has been the case a lot lately, New York put its foot down early, holding Sacramento to 22 first quarter points and improving their season-long first quarter defensive rating to 103.7 - barely trailing Boston for the stingiest in the league. The other early boon to their efforts was the recently unstoppable Julius Randle, who scored 17 in the first quarter and 27 in the first half. It turned out that the only one who could stop Julius was Julius himself, with a big assist from the refs. In what was a terribly officiated game throughout, Randle vehemently argued a non-foul call late in the third, drawing two techs and an ejection.

To their credit though, the Knicks maintained and increased what was a 13-point-lead at the time of Randle’s exit, and their defense never let up. This one never felt in danger of getting close.

🤕 Injury Report: The big news coming out of this game was regarding Jalen Brunson, who immediately asked out and went to the locker room after Davion Mitchell landed awkwardly on his ankle:

Afterwards, there was no word on whether Brunson would miss any time. He’s as tough as any player in the league, and earlier in this game, had a brutal fall on his hip but didn’t exit the game. Still, with the amount of pain he was in right after the incident with his ankle, it’s hard to see him being ready to go for Wednesday.

🛑 De-Fence: How good has the Knicks defense been over the last eight days in comparison to the 23 games that came before? The four point totals they’ve given up in that span - 81, 89, 99 and 102 points - are the four lowest totals of their entire season¹. How much does that matter? The Knicks are 8-0 this season when they give up 108 points or fewer.

More importantly, is it sustainable? Over this stretch, New York’s opponents have shot very poorly on both open and wide open threes. At the same time, the Knicks have also given up far fewer of both types of shots lately than they had been giving up beforehand. Moreover, on the year, Knick opponents are shooting slightly better than average on wide open shots compared to how other teams fare against similar looks. Teams were killing them on these looks prior to last Sunday, so a regression to the mean was probably in store.

🤔 Rotation Reflections: With Obi Toppin on the shelf for at least the next two to three weeks and likely a good deal longer, we got a look at Tom Thibodeau’s first attempt to replace him, and it didn’t include going back to any of the player who had recently been removed from the rotation.

With Derrick Rose, Cam Reddish and Evan Fournier looking on from the bench, Thibs went big over the weekend, using Jericho Sims and Isaiah Hartenstein as a twin towers combination for 20 minutes between the two games. Sims even played some brief moments with Mitch yesterday, and so far, so good. Thanks to Sims ability to move on the perimeter defensively and Hart’s more diverse offensive repertoire than most centers, it seems like the Knicks can get away with this look for about 10 minutes a night.

Also of note: following Randle’s rejection, RJ closed the game at the four, playing the last 15 and a half minutes at power forward. While Brunson’s absence certainly left the offense feeling a bit clunky at times, the move worked. Surrounding RJ with three quicker players seemed to pay dividends on both ends and left us wanting more. Maybe we get it as soon as the next game, especially with Brunson possibly on the shelf.

📈Standings check in: Playoffs? Playoffs? Did you say playoffs?

That’s right: after four straight wins, the Knicks find themselves in a three-way tie for 6th place in the East, with the best scoring margin of the three teams at 14-13.

📸 Play of the Game: On a night with several outstanding displays of team defense and ball movement, I’m choosing a moment of individual brilliance for this honor:

My reasons are twofold:

1. Many, many times over the last year, I’d have traded Julius for Harrison Barnes in a heartbeat, and he absolutely dusted him right here.

2. It was a reminder that when Randle is right - making shots, quick, decisive, all the good stuff - he’s one of the toughest covers in basketball.

Were it not for the ejection, I have to think he’d have been in contention for East player of the week honors. Not only has he put up 31 & 11 over the last three games, but he’s tops in the league over that span with a +58 plus/minus, 11 points ahead of second place Zion Williamson (+47) and 15 points ahead of the next best Knick, who also just so happens to be our first star of the weekend.

➡ About Friday Night… New York was clearly the better team from the outset, but the feisty Hornets hung around and fought back from Knick pushes in the late second and early third quarters. Eventually though, New York’s defense put the clamps down, and held Charlotte to five points over the final seven minutes of the third. The Knicks took a 20-point lead less than a minute into the fourth and never looked back.

Final score: New York 121, Hornets 102

💫 Stars of the Weekend 💫

⭐️ RJ Barrett: And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate…

You tell’em T-Swizzle. If putting RJ down here at third after his best consecutive games of the season isn’t an example of me being a hater, nothing can be, amirite?

Maybe. Or maybe I just want a little more - partially because I believe he has more to give, but mostly because the Knicks need more if they’re going to reach that next level, whatever it may be.

53 total points on 39 shots vs Charlotte and Sacramento isn’t earth-shattering efficiency, but there were enough good moments in both games - like this steal and smooth finish - to feel wildly encouraged, especially after his start to the season (and, I should add, a brutal start to the Hornets game). He had a stretch of eight straight makes on Friday night in which he looked like the sort of guy who you keep out of a Donovan Mitchell trade and feel OK about it afterwards.

He also had 10 assists over these two games - the first time this year he’s had double digit dimes in consecutive outings after doing so five times in the last two and a half months of last season. On defense, his three steals and two blocks vs the Kings were each a season high. Most notable of all, the dude sat for less than a minute in the second half yesterday thanks to Randle’s ejection. He’s a horse.

But there also continues to be head scratching moments, like missed box outs where he simply loses track of his man, or shots on drives that would still be better off as passes. It’s all part of the process, and it seems pretty clear now that the worst is behind him, but if we’re giving credit to those most responsible for New York’s recent turnaround, Barrett has to be lower on the list than…

⭐️ ⭐️ Quentin Grimes / Deuce McBride: This is with all due respect to Immanuel Quickley and Mitchell Robinson, who continue to put forth outstanding defensive efforts on a nightly basis. Robinson in particular was a man amongst boys on Friday, and despite foul trouble against the Kings, made his impact felt when he was in.

But as teams will now begin to take the Knicks more seriously, and maybe even fear them a bit, it is the Grimey Deuce that will strike that fear into their pristine souls.

Tom Piccolo @Tom_Piccolo

Fun defensive possession from Deuce here. First he tries to be sneaky. Then he literally puts his hands behind his back (a few times!) to emphasize that he’s moving his feet on D. Then he just straight rips it to ignite the break.

You wanna laugh? Deuce and Grimes have shared the court for just over 73 minutes this season, or a little more than a game and a half’s worth of time. In those 73 minutes, they’ve given up 126 total points, good for a 79.7 defensive rating. The Knicks have given up more than 126 points in a single game five times.

It’s not even just great on ball or off ball defense either. It’s everything, like being a pain in the tuchus getting around every screen and forcing the ref to blow a whistle for an offensive foul:

For anyone who’s spent the last two decades yearning for a return to the 90’s, no two players have more aptly personified those desires than Deuce McBride and Quentin Grimes. May they never leave this rotation for as long as they both shall live.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Julius Randle: Let’s go through two plays that tell you just how well Julius Randle is playing right now. Play No. 1:

The initial pass here out of the double is something we’ve become accustomed to seeing from Randle at times. The lightning fast outlet to Quickley in the corner is not. The rarity of that sort of processing speed is what make the Julius experience so frustrating even when he is getting buckets. But when he’s not thinking and just reacting? That guy is a weapon.

Speaking of drawing the double, Play No. 2:

Watching Randle forcibly urge RJ into the middle of the paint because he sees exactly how the play is going to unfold is just not the sort of thing we saw much of last season. Julius doesn’t end up with an assist on this play and probably knows he won’t when he initiates the movement. It doesn’t matter. He’s just making the right play.

So how do I reconcile all of the above with the fact that he lost his cool and got ejected from a game that was still too close for comfort, possibly hurting his team’s chances in the process? Here’s how: Randle gets his three stars, but I give them with the caveat that the Knicks must consider the whole picture with Julius as they decide his role in this team’s future. Trusting him as a leader of your team can yield dividends, as we saw two years ago and have been experiencing lately. It can also be dangerous. By now, the Knicks should know the risks and rewards better than anyone. Here’s hoping they don’t forget it when it’s time to make the tough decisions.

#WeBack ?

Nine days ago, shortly after one of the most embarrassing displays of competitiveness in recent Knicks history, I thought that I was going to have a pretty brutal start to the week.

The reason, quite simply, is that I assumed the Knicks would lose to the Cavs on Sunday night in either demoralizing or heartbreaking fashion - you say tomato, I say tomato - and that I’d be up till early in the morning writing about another coach losing his job. So yeah…not fun. Not as un-fun as the start to Thibodeau’s week, surely, but no fun nonetheless.

But of course, that loss never came. No loss has come, in fact, since that final buzzer against Dallas. Four games, four wins, and four more opportunities to try and understand a Knicks season that dispensed with any semblance of logic a long time ago.

After that Mavs game, only four teams - all blatant tankers - had worse defensive ratings than the Knicks. Now, after a four-game stretch in which they have the best defense in basketball by nearly eight points per 100 possessions, they are in a virtual tie with Atlanta for 10th. Wild, wacky stuff we’re dealing with here.

Or maybe not. After that Dallas loss, in which the Mavericks were walking into open threes like the Celtics, Cavs and Thunder had done before them, it felt like Tom Thibodeau’s defense was broken. Or at least, his defense with that level of effort from these players was broken. My how things have changed.

To be clear, that Mavs showing was awful. But it was also one game played by a team that had lost three of their last four in heartbreaking fashion. Not that letting go of the rope is ever OK, but in retrospect, that performance has become a little easier to live with. Part of that is because sometimes teams just get hot, but more importantly, a turnaround had been in the works for a while.

After what was at the time their most embarrassing performance of the year against OKC at home one month ago, New York went out west and started to show signs of life. Since that Thunder game - more than half the season - they are 8-6 with the fifth best defense in the league. As was the case in Thibodeau’s first two years guiding the club, a slow start has evolved into something better - maybe much better, if the current level of play keeps up.

But more telling than the improved record is the newfound identity that is behind it. Now, for around half of every game, two of Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes and Deuce McBride are on the court together, and for about 10 of those minutes every night, all three are on the court at the same time. Watching them unleash hell on some poor opponent has become the pinnacle of any in-game experience.

This possession ended with Malik Monk trying desperately to put the moves on Grimes as the shot clock wound down, only to heave up a long two that didn’t hit rim as the clock expired. When you factor in Mitchell Robinson, whose return from an eight-game absence has been an underrated stabilizing force, it’s easy to forecast this team’s path to winning games.

That path still requires points to be scored, and to that end, the whole equation gets scrapped if Jalen Brunson is forced to miss significant time with his sprained ankle. Likewise, the rejuvenated Julius Randle has been everything they could hope for and more, but last night’s ejection reminded us that Bad JuJu is always lurking around the corner.

And yet, despite having to play the final nine minutes of this game without either player, it is a testament to how real this turnaround feels that the game never seemed to be in doubt. Now, a third of the way through the season, New York is in a three-way tie for the final playoff spot in the East. It doesn’t feel like they’re bowing out of the race anytime soon.

One step at a time though. Today, we have a perfect moment to stop and recognize that in an 82-game season, the bad is never as bad as we think, and the good is never as good as we wish it was. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and despite some early tripping and slipping, the Knicks deserve credit for never fully losing their footing.

Now we’ll see how long they can remain in stride.

🏀

That’s it for today! If you enjoy this newsletter and like the Mets, don’t forget to subscribe to JB’s Metropolitan, or his hockey newsletter, Isles Fix. See y’all soon! #BlackLivesMatter

1. They also gave up 102 to Orlando in Game 3.