Knicks Fall to Hornets: A Sting or Swarm in a Magical Season?
If the New York Knicks were competing in the famed March Madness proceedings next week, Tuesday's loss might've cost them some real estate on the bracket.
Fortunately for the Knicks, only two numbers ... wins and losses ... determine the professional postseason seedings and they have circa 50 more opportunities to impress than their collegiate counterparts. But dropping a 112-105 decision to the hapless Charlotte Hornets is the type of loss that sticks with a team, one that reeked of the new century hardwood nonsense that has defined the modern Knicks.
The Knicks being the Knicks, even their successes are far from conventional: no one expected New York (39-28) to go undefeated from Super Bowl Saturday to Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs, but at least falling to one of the many playoff contenders on their docket (i.e. Boston, Brooklyn, Miami) would've been understandable, if not downright acceptable. But falling to a team headlined by Michael Jordan doesn't carry the same luster it did at the turn of the century... especially when a blown 16-point lead is involved.
"There’s a lot we can learn from tonight We’re not going to be perfect. We didn’t play a great game, but (we can) bounce back tomorrow," head coach Tom Thibodeau said, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. "I think every game is a trap game ... You let your guard down, a little bit, you’re going to slip. This league is too good. … You have to make sure you get the proper amount of preparation and that we’re ready to play.”
The Knicks just spent the past three weeks convincing the basketball world that they were potentially destined for greater things. The new calendar year has been a godsend to the Knicks, who have beaten several of the top contenders from both sides of the hardwood aisle, perhaps proving they're capable of at least hanging in a seven-game series with any Eastern team away from Milwaukee.
Losing to the Hornets, however, will no doubt serve as a wake-up call to doubters who were waiting for the slightest provocation and permission to doubt New York once more. The road gets no easier for the Knicks, who now embark on a Western swing that features visits to Sacramento, both Los Angeles squads, and Portland.
Is the loss to Charlotte a mere sting on the lengthy path of an NBA season? Or is a swarm of problems headed the Knicks' way as the postseason looms?
Sting: The Brunson Bye
If anything, Tuesday served as the perfect MVP case for Jalen Brunson. New York deserves credit for holding its own when Brunson is out (Tuesday's loss dropped them to 3-3 sans the point guard) but his medically-induced departure left them without a closer as a nine-point became a seven-point deficit far too quickly than any sound basketball mind should be comfortable with.
Doubters of the Knicks' recent success had plenty of ammunition to defuse any momentum for starving Manhattan supporters, as several of the victories were earned without the services of some talented players, be it for medical (Jaylen Brown, Zion Williams) or transactional (Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving) reasons. Such excuses, however, work both ways, and, if anything, the Knicks deserve credit for getting through three days without Brunson relatively unscathed.
Swarm: Carolina Barrett Blues
Tuesday was perhaps a microcosm of RJ Barrett's 2022-23 season ... for better and for worse. With Brunson out and fellow reliable scoring option Julius Randle struggling (season-worst 29 percent from the field), Barrett provided the foundation for the Knicks' early through a brilliant second quarter breakout that featured 13 points and strong defense. But Barrett went on to shoot 4-of-15 in the second half and hit only one of his final 12, a stretch capped off by a 1-of-9 stretch over the final dozen minutes.
“I don't think my shots were horrible,” Barrett said of his fourth quarter, per Anthony Rieber of Newsday. “A lot of the shots I took were the same shots that I made before. They just didn't go in.”
Any modern NBA playoff trip worth its trouble requires a scoring triumvirate firing on all cylinders. Logic dictates that defensive intensity will be greater than ever come the postseason, so, much like, say, the Yankees or Mets can't rely solely on one slugger hitting home runs come October, the Knicks need multiple threats come the spring rather than putting the burden entirely on Brunson or Randle.
Barrett bursts have come up at opportune times but that has done nothing to silence critics that (misguidedly, but that's another conversation) want Josh Hart in the starting five or bring up Barrett's nine-digit contract extension in lieu of the Donovan Mitchell deal. He has undoubtedly played a role in the Knicks' success this season, but playing a consistent 48 minutes has been a struggle. It's great to see that his confidence hasn't waned, but he has to start developing a more consistent game for both the Knicks' short (the playoffs) and long-term (the extension) affairs.
Sting: The Show Goes On
Had this been the NFL and, say, the Giants fell to a two-win Panthers group around Thanksgiving, there might be some cause for concern. But the 82-game NBA affords its teams a chance to immediately shake off the doldrums of a shocking defeat and there's ample opportunity for the Knicks to immediately re-establish themselves as contenders.
A four-game Western Conference tour begins on Thursday in Sacramento (10 p.m. ET, TNT) with a visit to Hart's former employers in Portland helping sandwich a weekend set against the Los Angeles couple. Even if the Knicks still have work to do if they want to enter the East's supposed penthouse (occupied by Milwaukee and Boston with Philadelphia and Cleveland in the elevator), the team appears to know what's at stake: last night's postgame comments hinted that they're not using the crutches of previous wins and fatigue (March tips off with eight games before St. Patrick's Day).
“I don’t think (fatigue is) an excuse," Sunday hero turned Tuesday scapegoat Immanuel Quickley said in video from SNY. "You just don’t blame it on that. We just got to play better. I've got to play better. We’ll learn from it. I know I will.”
“Our job is to play basketball. You got people getting up at 6 am doing 12-hour shifts," Hart added, per Ian Begley. "Those people are tired. For us, we’re playing a game. Obviously, we’re fortunate enough to play a game like this, but we have to keep that in perspective.”
The Knicks have done a solid job of adjusting themselves after losses: they haven't lost consecutive games since late January and only three losing streaks have gone beyond a trio.
Swarm: Is Nine Fine?
Thibodeau has far and away earned the last laugh when it comes to his nine-man rotation, but Tuesday was a sign that it's not all perfect. While the Knicks claim it wasn't a factor, the fact remains that the team was forced to play four games, one of which went to double overtime, in the span of a week.
Perhaps some assistance off the bench, even if it was just a handful of minutes for, say, Evan Fournier or Derrick Rose could've helped stem the bleeding against the Hornets.
The powers that be in the NBA's scheduling department continue to do the Knicks little, if any, favors. Even if they kept them situated in the City of Angels for a back-to-back, they have them playing on consecutive nights on the road at Crypto.com Arena. The Knicks' success with nine men has been telling and has served as a turning point in this brilliant, if not stressful, season.
New York has built a solid cushion between themselves and the postseason inferno of missing out on the top 10 entirely but they'd obviously like to solidify themselves among the six automatic Eastern Conference playoff spots. Expanding the rotation, if even ever so briefly, would be a unique form of load management that keeps the team fresh as they prepare for a postseason run burdened with relatively little to lose.
Bottom Line
Anything the Knicks do over the remainder of this season should be viewed through the lens of the fact that the team has more or less exceeded any expectations placed upon them at the start of the year. There's no use overreacting to a single loss in an 82-game season, but it's perhaps a not-so-subtle reminder that their time for championship contention hasn't come quite yet.
Plenty of truths can be gleaned from the Brunson-less effort can be gleaned from the Tuesday game but the Knicks' true destiny will be developed through how they respond over the next few days and perhaps weeks. For the time being, the loss to Charlotte is indeed a mere sting in the grand scheme of things, but it's up to them to make sure the swarm never comes.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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