Knicks overcome sluggish start to clinch playoffs with 118-109 win over Wizards

The New York Knicks are going back to the playoffs. 

After missing last year’s postseason, the Knicks secured their playoff berth on Sunday night with a 118-109 victory over the Washington Wizards. 

While many of the fans at Madison Square Garden were anticipating an easy win against a Wizards team playing without Bradley Beal or Kyle Kuzma, the Knicks certainly found a way to make it interesting, starting with announcing a few hours before the game that, in addition to Julius Randle being out with his ankle injury, RJ Barrett would miss the game with an illness. 

RJ Barrett (illness) is out for tonight’s game against Washington.

— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) April 2, 2023

When the game finally started, the Knicks seemed totally out of sorts. 

With few players on the court who were capable of initiating offense aside from Jalen Brunson and Immanuel Quickley, the Knicks were consistently trapped and double-teamed by the Wizards on the perimeter whenever they touched the ball. The added pressure led to poor passes, rushed shots, and a generally fragmented Knicks offense that seemed to be playing without confidence for much of the first half.

The lack of offense would have been something the Knicks could have withst00d if they were getting stops, but they weren’t doing that either.

Theoretically, taking two of the Knicks’ three worst defenders off of the floor should have enabled the team to assemble rotations that would have upped the defensive intensity and pressured a Wizards team that was without its two best players. However, in reality, it was exactly the opposite in the first half. 

The Knicks’ season-long issues defending the three were on full display. The team over-helped on drives and often sent double-teams to wall off dribble penetration which left them exposed to the cutters the Wizards sent along the baseline. Washington was able to knock down more than a few easy buckets and when the baseline wasn’t there, they had plenty of open attempts from beyond the arc that they were more than happy to knock down.

The Wizards hit seven of their first 13 three-point attempts (53.8%) and finished the first half 10-of-20 from deep. Meanwhile, the Knicks were just 5-of-15 from beyond the arc. 

Without Randle and Barrett, offense also felt hard to come by for the Knicks at times, especially when Jalen Brunson went to the bench. In part, the struggles were because Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau failed to properly stagger his rotations. At the start of the second quarter, he sat all of Brunson, Mitchell Robinson, Quentin Grimes, and Obi Toppin for the first five minutes of the second quarter.

The Knicks were outscored 17-4 during that stretch without many offense-first options on the floor other than Quickley. 

In addition to the odd lineup that Thibodeau left on the court for too long in the second quarter, he also continued to display befuddling usage of Obi Toppin. In the first quarter, Toppin was the Knicks’ offense for stretches. He scored seven points in his first nine minutes, knocking down a three and finding himself on the other end of two alley-oops which invigorated the crowd. 

However, he was rewarded with zero second-quarter minutes while Evan Fournier floundered as a small-ball forward next to Isaiah Hartenstein with the second unit. 

Overall, it was a disappointing first 24 minutes for New York. 

The second half was a different story, as the third quarter went exactly as many would have expected the first half to go. 

The Knicks’ defensive-minded unit guarded the Wizards with more energy on the perimeter and challenged shots at the rim with athleticism and strength. When the Wizards started to miss their shots, Robinson vacuumed up the rebounds, which allowed the Knicks to get out in transition and set up easy buckets.

Washington scored just 14 points in the third quarter, and the momentum of the game shifted for good.

“The second half was much better,” Thibodeau said after the game. “Ball pressure was a lot better…We can’t go into the game and try to outscore somebody. We need to play great defense too. Particularly being shorthanded right now.”

Offensively, Brunson, Quickley, and Toppin came out in the third quarter and aggressively attacked the Wizards in the paint. Brunson, who was frustrated by the lack of calls early in the game, started to finish with his usual consistency and when the driving lanes were plugged up, the Knicks kicked the ball out for good outside looks.

The point guard wound up leading the Knicks with 27 points (tied with Grimes) while also chipping in eight assists, three rebounds, and three steals. 

Thibodeau responded in the second half as well.

After the Knicks tied the game with five minutes left in the third quarter, Thibodeau made his first substitution, bringing Hart in for Quickley but leaving the rest of the starters on the floor. A few minutes later, he brought in Hartenstein for Robinson but kept Brunson, Grimes, and Hart together to initiate the offense. When the fourth quarter started, Thibodeau brought Quickley back in to give Brunson a rest but ensure that the offense still had enough initiators to keep a positive flow. 

“I was gonna sub one at a time in the second half to make sure guys got rest,” said Thibodeau after the game. “It was really the way the game was going. The bottom line is find a way to win. I thought the group that was out there got into a good rhythm.”

It’s hard not to believe that some of Thibodeau’s shortening of his second-half rotations had to do with the energy brought by Obi Toppin. 

After Toppin didn’t see the court in the second quarter, the power forward didn’t leave the court in the second half, playing all 24 minutes and rewarding his coach’s confidence with a final line of 21 points, four assists, two steals, one block, and a game-high +19 plus/minus rating. 

“Obi made a number of good plays off of the double team,” admitted Thibodeau. “Either he shot it or he made a quick decision and skipped it across. He got us rhythm shots.”

While Toppin’s substantial minutes in the second half were partly due to his success and poor performance early on from Evan Fournier and Miles McBride, Thibodeau may also have been adjusting for an early fourth-quarter injury to Josh Hart, who crumpled to the floor, grabbing his ankle. 

While Hart was able to walk off the court and Thibodeau suggested he was just being re-taped, the Knicks will likely be cautious with him over the next few games as they head toward a likely first-round playoff matchup with the Cavaliers. 

The Knicks will play again on Wednesday when they travel to Indiana to take on the Pacers before heading to New Orleans on Friday and then back home on Sunday to finish the season against the Pacers again. 

“Keep going,” said Thibodeau after the game. “That’s where the focus is. Keep checking the boxes as we go.”

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