Knicks unease that might have been softened with the optimistic news surrounding Julius Randle’s timetable following a dislocated shoulder ramped back up slightly before tip-off on Monday night in Charlotte.
OG Anunoby, the sparkplug whose 3-and-D style had helped spark 12 wins in New York’s last 14 games, was a late scratch due to elbow inflammation.
That put the Knicks down two of their best three players amidst a six-game win streak against the Hornets.
“I think it’s going to be day-to-day. Inflammation,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We’ll see where it is. He went through shootaround, he was planning on playing, it was just a late scratch.”
In need of not only Anunoby’s style but a secondary scorer to support Jalen Brunson, who still managed to drop 32 points on the Hornets, Donte DiVincenzo provided just that.
Getting the start at the 2 with Josh Hart filling in for Anunoby at the 3, DiVincenzo played a team-high 41 minutes, was a team-high plus-24 on the floor, and dropped 28 points on 10-of-22 shooting which included five three-pointers — albeit on 15 attempts — as the Knicks won their seventh straight game, 113-92.
“The thing I like about it is he doesn’t hesitate. He’s very confident,” Thibodeau said of DiVincenzo. “He puts a lot of work in and he worked extremely hard all summer to make sure he was ready for the start of the season. It sets up everything else for him. If they start flying at him, he can put it down on the floor… He’s good in the open floor. There’s no hesitation and we needed that. We need the volume threes.”
The 26-year-old, in his first season with the Knicks, came up especially large in the third quarter to help put the Knicks out of sight. They held just a three-point lead after two quarters before DiVincenzo posted 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc with three assists in a frame in which the Knicks outscored the Hornets 44-24.
Versatility has been the name of the game for the Villanova product under Thibodeau. When he’s called upon to take a more expanded role, he usually steps up — averaging 22.3 points and nearly five three-pointers in games in which he plays 27 minutes or more. That’s the kind of depth that supplements the blow of being without go-to players on a given night.
And it helps cement the fact that the Knicks are a deep team that is setting up to make plenty of noise this spring.
“You’re not replacing Julius with any player. Same thing with OG,” Thibodeau said. “For us, it’s the collection of everybody working together. Everybody is capable of playing great defense, everyone is capable of rebounding the ball well, everyone is capable of taking care of the ball and not turning it over and sharing the ball. If you’re open, shoot. If you’re not open, make the play for your teammate and when we do that, we can beat anyone.”
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