The New York Knicks have made significant progress over the past five years as they continue to build toward legitimate contention in the Eastern Conference.
But after Saturday night’s beatdown 131-104 loss against the defending champion Boston Celtics, it is clear they still have a long way to go.
“Today as a whole was unacceptable,” star guard Jalen Brunson labeled it (h/t SNY). “We’re not where we want to be.”
Consider this a dose of reality for a Knicks team that had won seven of its last eight games and were trailing the Celtics by 1.5 games entering the Saturday-night marquee clash at Madison Square Garden.
While Brunson dropped 36 points, Karl-Anthony Towns was held to just nine points — the clear target of a swarming Celtics defense that had the luxury of not having to deal with OG Anunoby, who is nursing a sprained right foot.
Significant absences cannot provide much of an excuse for the Knicks, though. They were dominated by a Boston team that was without two of its key men, Jrue Holiday and old friend Kristaps Porzingis.
Jayson Tatum deserves much of that credit. He dropped 40 points on 13-of-26 shooting from the field and 7-of-14 from three-point range — the main benefactor of the absence of Anunoby, who is New York’s elite perimeter defender.
“We didn’t come out great,” Josh Hart said. “We were stagnant… we just didn’t execute.”
That seems to be a trend more often than not when the Knicks play against good teams — playoff-contending teams.
While they are 23-6 against sub-.500 squads this season, they are now just 11-12 against teams with winning records. Such a pattern does not bode well for the playoffs, regardless of what seed they are.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Towns said. “There’s no sugarcoating it. There’s no moral wins. If we’ve got aspirations, which I know we do, then we’ve got to find ways to win games like tonight. That’s a team that’s in the race. Great teams, championship teams, they test your discipline. And we’ve got to work on keeping our discipline for all 48 minutes.”
