Knicks 121, Hornets 102: On the 12th day of Christmas . . .
The Knicks’ latest win was as bountiful as the holiday season
On the ninth of December, the New York Knicks were gifted the presence of the Charlotte Hornets and left North Carolilna with a 121-102 gradual blowout win. The Knicks have won three in a row for the first time since the last time they beat the Hornets six weeks ago. Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, there was no greater likelihood of suffering for Knicks fans than matching up with Michael Jordan’s team. Then again, once upon a time the Yankees spent more than the Mets and won more than the Red Sox, Manchester United looked down at Manchester City and the Jets couldn’t find a quarterback. Now the Mets are the big spenders, the Sox have won four World Series since the Yankees’ last title, City are the best club on the planet, United are fumblers on and off the pitch and the Jets . . . well, there’s still some constancy in this world.
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me twelve drummers drumming
As November grayed into December, the Knicks also brought bitter to the world, losing four of five games to fall a season-high (-low?) three games under .500. Mutiny was in the air: Tom Thibodeau, that spitefully stubborn fossil record, had to go. Ditto Leon Rose, Julius Randle, anyone over 30 and Robert Randolph if you could get anything for him. The drums thundered as they neared. But what sounded like a death march has become the rhythm of repeatable success.
Julius Randle once again was the Knick with the knack early, scoring 19 in the first half with a healthy shot diet: three 3-pointers, three 2-pointers and four free throws. New York blew the game open in the third, when RJ Barrett made four of five shots for 10 points. Randle cooled from the field but went to the line eight times, making six. Drummers have to be consistent. The Knicks have held the lead after all four quarters of their last three games. Hard to be steadier than that.
Eleven pipers piping
One-time Knick J.R. Smith once flirted with a fan in his DMs by famously asking if she was “tryna get the pipe.” So far this season New York’s pied piper has been Jalen Brunson, who’s taken to running the offense as if he were born to (as the son of a previous Knick point guard, maybe he was). JB isn’t simply tangibly better than any Knick PG since Stephon Marbury, he’s a reminder of what it is to have a winner, maybe even a leader, on the team.
Despite shooting a horrific 28% from the field during the winning streak, Brunson is a +22 over those games, with 21 assists and an assist-to-turnover rate better than two to one. There are all kinds of ways to get the pipe. It’s a question of knowing what to do once you have it, and how to deliver when you’re not quite as up as you’d like to be. Thank you, Captain Jalen.
Ten lords a-leaping
Unrelated but interesting: ask the Knicks who among them would be most likely to travel to outer space and perhaps not surprisingly it’s their two leadling leapers.
Nine ladies dancing
If you’ve ever watched a really top-flight and together NBA defense, it can at times seem like there are more than five players on the court. That’s because the usual hairline cracks that can grow into large-scale fault lines never occur; there’s too much coverage, too much attention to detail to allow it to happen. I wonder, having seen more of Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes and Miles McBride playing together, if it feels like that for opposing offenses. Them cats all have quick feet and insistent arms; it looks sometimes like there’s nine of them out there. Pair that with a rim protector and you’ve made yourself into a problem other teams have to solve.
Eight maids a-milking
Isaiah Hartenstein had eight rebounds and looks like the only thing he was ever allowed to drink was milk. It’s also very easy to imagine him and his fiancée cosplaying as a farmer and a milk maid. That’s all I got for this one.
Seven swans a-swimming
A third of the way into the season, are the Knicks swimming with or against the current? If you told a fan two months ago they’d be 13-13, in the midst of the play-in wannabes, and that every win seems to include some caveat about who the other team was missing, you could reasonably conclude now is the time to tear down this merry mediocrity. Sitting through Tom Thibodeau wearing himself, his players and the fans out in the chase for 39 wins could be tough; once the season’s over, what is there to be excited about? The lack of cap space? The top-10 protected first-round pick owed New York via Dallas?
Alternatively: the Knicks have de-emphasized Evan Fournier, Derrick Rose and Cam Reddish while playing more of Quickley. We’ve seen Randle and Obi Toppin playing together more; in this game, Thibs even played Hartenstein and Jericho Sims together some. The pace is better, the offense is too and the defense has been hitting different during the winning streak. Wherever this team is headed, keep paddling, fellas.
Six geese a-laying
What a mess Charlotte is, has always been, will always be? With last night’s L, they’ve dropped five of six, eight of 11 and 16 of 21. It looks like this will be their 21st straight season without winning a playoff series; the last time they did, their starters were Baron Davis, David Wesley, George Lynch, P.J. Brown and Elden Campbell. In the NBA, dropping dimes is a good thing. Dropping decades is not.
Five golden rings
If Charles Smith finishes at the rim in Game 5 of the 1993 Eastern finals, Michael Jordan retires with five rings instead of six. I’m not blaming Smith. Merely pointing out a fact.
Four calling birds
If you count the replay official in New York, last night’s game had four referees calling it. There were not 16 traveling violations, which kept the Knicks’ fun mostly frictionless.
Three French hens
Fournier is French. Barrett speaks French. Victor Wembanyama, who Charlotte could end up with next summer if the draft odds finally fall in their favor, is also French. That’s all I got for three hens. If Wembanyama is what people say he is, best to save words now and save them for when he hits the scene.
Two turtledoves
According to Leviticus, worshippers who were too poor to afford a lamb for sacrifice could instead use turtledoves. The Knicks’ next game is Sunday when they host the Sacramento Kings in a battle of two teams who’ve had their share of misfortune this century. Section 2, right behind the basket, has seats listed at $132 before taxes and fees, meaning if you wanna take someone to what should be an exciting game it’d cost nearly $300 — and that’s if you don’t eat or drink anything those hours. May wanna see if they’ll accept turtledoves as currency instead.
And a partridge in a pear tree
Nature can be cold. If a baby bunny comes in contact with a person, its mother may shun it completely afterward, even if it means leaving their baby to die. Some birds behave similarly. Not a mama partridge. She’ll fight to the death to protect her babies. Which leads us to Quincy Acy back in 2014. Who could forget this holiday classic?
Notice how no Knick shows a smidge of interest in Acy’s beef? Cole Aldrich walks in the opposite direction. Pablo Prigioni is headed for the bench. Carmelo Anthony and Jose Calderon, wily vets, manage to stay out of it without looking like obvious cowards.
I don’t see that being the case with this team, a credit to the players and to Thibodeau. Even when they struggle, we don’t hear leaks coming out of the locker room about who’s at fault or who’s not. This seems like a pretty together unit, maybe more now than ever with Thibs having more time to schedule and work on adjustments. A partridge doesn’t have a national holiday devoted to it like turkey does. But in a season that continues to suggest a dogfight endgame, give me the fighting, scrapping Knicks. Give me partridges.
