Hawks 116, Knicks 100: A loss earned, a lesson learned?

The Knicks fell behind big and couldn’t quite finish the comeback. What they showed in last night’s loss could pay off come playoff time.

Last night the New York Knicks' B-team played against a play-in team missing their best player. The air of excitement typically present whenever Trae Young, the antagonist who spoiled the “We Here” season of 2021, returns to Madison Square Garden was nowhere to be found. And yet, after falling behind by as many as 21 points in the first half, the Knicks' grinders found a way to bring electricity to the Garden when Josh Hart hit a two-point jumper to tie the game at 78-78 late in the third quarter, before they ran out of juice and succumbed in the fourth, 116-100.

3-point barrage

The shorthanded Knicks attacked this game with a smart strategy for today’s underdogs: launch as many 3-pointers as possible. Without Jalen Brunson or Julius Randle, the other players’ ability to create advantages for themselves and each other is sorely lacking. This put a lot of pressure on the young Deuce McBride to create offense, and on Donte DiVincenzo to fire any 3-pointer possible. The Knicks finished with 52 3-point attempts, making barely over 30%.

Is it possible the lack of variety is what hurt the Knicks? Despite shooting so many 3-pointers, the Knicks saw three of their five starters combine to attempt zero in the first half. The opposing defense knew where the threes were coming from; DiVincenzo himself took 15. We know Tom Thibodeau values size, but if the gameplan was going to be to shoot a lot of 3-pointers, starting Bojan Bogdanović could have been the right decision last night.

Or maybe Josh Hart, who took zero 3-pointers in the first half but followed that up with seven in the second, could have come out more aggressive with his shot from the jump. Regardless, the Knicks struggled to put the ball in the basket early on (15 first-quarter points) and built a deficit nearly impossible to overcome.

Precious minutes?

You could argue Precious Achiuwa was the team's best player last night. Achiuwa, a center in a power forward's body, finished with 15 points (7-of-8 shooting), six rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block. He was the only Knick with a positive plus-minus rating. Yet despite a shortened rotation, Achiuwa played just 24 minutes. Why is that?

The answer is in the opening statement: Achiuwa is, in Thibodeau's mind, too small to play major minutes at center. But it's become clear that he also can't play power forward for long stretches. With Hart at small forward and a paintbound rim-roamer at center, the spacing simply becomes too cramped. So what can Thibodeau do? To be clear, there are no perfect answers. No matter what Thibodeau decides, he's sacrificing something — and to me, that is the point.

This isn't about how the team performs without four of its best players. It would be unreasonable to expect more than the fight they continue to show night in and night out. But, hopefully, the Knicks will soon be whole again. And when that day comes, there will be moments in games that matter a lot more than any last night, when Thibodeau will have to make a decision. Because despite the high levels of quality the healthy Knicks have shown, they too are not without flaws. There will come a time when the best course of action will be for Thibodeau to sacrifice his precious size in exchange for something more vital in that moment.

So as the Knicks took another loss last night (their eighth in 11 games since the Quentin Grimes trade), I couldn't help but remain encouraged. Yes, they fell short, but they showed the same grit and tenacity that has made us fall in love with them. And Thibodeau showed an awareness that there are multiple ways to try and win a basketball game. That, my friends, is the path forward for this team if we want to see them make a deep run in the postseason.