This past Sunday the New York Knicks lost on the road to the Indiana Pacers 121-132. It was a seemingly close game throughout the night until the fourth quarter where the Knicks completely collapsed on both ends of the court. The Pacers were led by guard Bennedict Mathurin who scored a career high in points with 38 points, including 7 three pointers.
Followed by guard Tyrese Haliburton who put up 35 points and 14 assists. Despite an impressive offensive performance from the Knicks power duo of guard Jalen Brunson and center Karl-Anthony Towns combining for 63 points, it wasn’t quite enough to pull away with the win. Here are a few takeaways from Sunday night’s loss.
Jalen Brunson found rhythm
Prior to last night’s game, it’s been a personal battle for Jalen Brunson trying to find his rhythm. He made a recent remark after Friday night’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks alluding to his recent struggles saying “I haven’t been satisfied individually with how I’ve been playing.” Before the win against Indiana, Brunson shot below 45 percent from the field on five occasions, which included three losses. It’s been evident that he hasn’t looked like himself in terms of scoring.
In the last 4 games, he’s made 7 out of 22 three point attempts, resulting in just 31 percent. Last season, Brunson was attempting 2.7-6.8 threes per game, but recently he’s been taking and making less threes, partly attributing to the Knicks three point problem I’ll get into next. However, despite losing the Indiana, Brunson looked more like the 1A version we know him to be. He scored 33 points, along with 10 assists and 6 rebounds.
What was most important about his performance was that he shot efficiently, at 64.7 percent from the field 50 percent behind the arc (with just 2 threes attempted). Another great sight to see for fans was his aggressiveness towards the basket, leading to 10/12 made free throws.
Knicks struggling to make threes and defend them
The scoring in this game was quite tight through all quarters up until the fourth when the Pacers had a three-point scoring showdown. A big part of the 4th quarter collapse was the Knicks inability to defend the three-point line. In that quarter, the Knicks got out-scored 27-40 points. They let the Pacers make 8 three pointers, meanwhile they only sank 1.
The Pacers, who average twelve made threes a game, ended with twenty one. It was a poor defensive performance by the Knicks, specifically in the fourth where it looked like they lacked aggressiveness and urgency getting out to defend the perimeter. They were a step slow and ultimately Indiana was able to take over the game by shooting all of those threes down the stretch.
It’s difficult to pinpoint what caused the faulty defense, but exhaustion could have contributed to it. 3 out of 5 of the players in the Knicks starting lineup played over 40 minutes in the loss due to Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau running a 7 man rotation. Towns played the entire fourth quarter and forwards OG Anunoby and Brunson played ten out twelve minutes as well.
The starters didn’t get much rest, leading to many fans speculating that’s what caused the collapse down the stretch and lack of energy. While the Knicks had difficulty defending the three point line, they also couldn’t make many either. The team ended with 7 made threes in total, which is quite unbelievable for an NBA team playing in this era.
The team needs more from Mikal Bridges
In the loss, Knicks guard Mikal Bridges only scored 8 points, shooting 36.4 percent from the field and going 0-6 behind the three point line. The guard has had his own scoring struggles since becoming a Knick, putting up just one 20+ point game thus far. His three-point shooting has severely taken a dip at 31.7 percent, compared to last season where he shot 37.2 percent with the Brooklyn Nets. His lack of threes have contributed to the Knicks three point shooting problem.
Ultimately, fans are expecting more from the 28-year old after giving up five first round picks to get him. Bridges will have to get more involved offensively to help provide the much needed scoring the team needs behind Brunson and Towns. Bridges has also been struggling defensively which has been a surprise to fans. He was marked a -11 in the plus/minus stat of the loss on Sunday.
Overall, Bridges looked a step slow and a bit lost out there on the defensive end while committing poor fouls.
