Suns 128, Knicks 105: 51st Anniversary
The Knicks dropped their second straight game in embarrassing fashion, blowing a double-digit lead and tanking the fourth quarter in the Valley of the Sun on the 51st anniversary of the Knicks’ first championship.
On May 8, 1970, the Knicks won their first NBA championship behind the game of Walt “Clyde” Frazier’s career — 36 points on 12-17 shooting and 19 assists. Frazier was inspired by the well-documented heroics of Willis Reed, who played through a devastating injury sustained in Game 5 of the Finals.
Fifty years and 364 days later (give or take a few hours), the Knicks took on the Suns in Phoenix. The Knicks started the first quarter slow, because they always do, because Thibs isn’t fielding the optimal starting lineup. The bench helped dig the Knicks out of the hole, led largely by excellent play from Derrick Rose and Obi Toppin. The Knicks extended their lead to seven points on a block from Toppin, which he then turned into a fast break dunk.
Seven was where the Knick lead sat at halftime, and after a back-and-forth third quarter, New York was poised to take a 2-point lead into the fourth quarter before Torrey Craig tipped in a missed Devin Booker fast break layup and tied it up. RJ Barrett made matters worse when he lazily inbounded the ball, letting Cam Payne intercept it and tip it in just before the buzzer. The Suns went from trailing two to up two in the space of about two seconds, and it felt like the Knicks were never again in control of the game.
Noted annoyance Jae Crowder then exploded with 4-6 shooting from deep in the fourth quarter to put the game away as the Knicks seemed to lose some of their composure, including a moment from Taj Gibson. Taj let his emotions get the best of him and basically tackled Chris Paul as Paul was bringing the ball up the court, for which Gibson was assessed a Flagrant 1. While Barrett’s inbounding error put the Knicks down to start the quarter, Gibson’s flagrant was a white flag of sorts — and showed something we haven't seen from the Knicks lately, a lack of overall composure. The MSG broadcast mentioned that Nerlens Noel stated that the Knicks players had had this game circled, since Phoenix was the team that snapped New York’s winning streak. It appears the Knicks let that pressure get to them, especially as the game slipped through their fingers.
Overall, this was a fun game for most of three quarters, until the Knicks let go of the rope. Against a team the quality of Phoenix’s, the Knicks can’t afford to be starting each half with a sub-optimal lineup and to be losing their composure.
Notes
— Tonight’s Four Factors, courtesy of Cleaning the Glass:
— No Immanuel Quickley (sprained left ankle) or Alec Burks (knee) tonight for the Knicks.
— Thibs is my pick for the Coach of the Year, but if he loses to Phoenix head coach Monty Williams, I won’t be angry. A lot of the credit has gone to CP3, but Williams deserves just as much. Williams has Deandre Ayton anchoring one of the league’s best defenses and has players like Frank Kaminsky and Cam Payne — guys who were borderline NBA players previously — giving the Suns valuable minutes off the bench.
— Rose was excellent tonight, shooting 53.6% eFG% for 17 points, and adding six assists to just one turnover. His six points and three assists in the first quarter were a major reason that the Knicks were able to turn around the slow start and head into the second quarter with a lead. Rose, like the Knicks as a whole, cooled off a lot in the second half.
— Toppin played extremely well — eight points on 100% eFG%, two blocks, two steals. I noted his highlight play above, but he’s been stringing together some high-level games recently, and this may have been his best. I especially liked this play where he couldn’t convert on the lob attempt, and quickly relocated to the corner after Gibson got the offensive rebound.
— Gibson continues to fill in as the backup center extremely well — six rebounds, two blocks, and 11 points on 83.3% eFG%.
— Noel was truly atrocious tonight, and a number of his bad habits were exposed by the Suns. My least favorite of those is his tendency to turn his back to the ball when recovering to his man. When Noel struggles defensively, he's worse than a net negative, given his offensive struggles.
— Jae Crowder cooked the Knicks, because of course. He shot 6-12 from three for 18 points for the night. Extraordinarily annoying.
— Randle’s stat line (24 points on 53.1% eFG%, 11 rebounds, and four assists) seems impressive, but I wasn’t too enthused by his overall game. There were a few poor decisions made and I thought the defensive effort we’ve come to expect this season was absent. But he did have this nice play in transition, with help from an uncounted assist from Rose.
— Barrett’s 47.7% eFG% for 23 points seems unimpressive on its face, but Barrett tied his career-high for threes attempted, and was one short of tying his career high in threes converted. He also had this nice play where he burned a Phoenix defense that wasn’t paying attention.
— Frank Ntilikina got into the rotation for the first time in a number of games. He didn’t score and had one assist, but defended Paul extremely well in the second quarter. Frank’s point of attack defense, capacity to navigate screens, and smart rotations helped plug what had been a very leaky defense to that point by taking away the easy reads that Paul was feasting on when defended by the other guards. That was one of the reasons the bench gave the Knicks the lead in the first half.
Frank was the difference between this:
And this:
But, for whatever reason, Frank was not matched up against Paul, and instead was guarding Cam Payne in the second half. That was one of the things that ended up sinking the Knicks. From what I’ve seen this season, Ntilikina deserves to be in the rotation, and likely will be for another team next season.
— The MSG broadcast mentioned multiple times that the magic number of wins for the Knicks to secure the No. 6 seed and not fall into the play-in tournament is three. They have five more games, none of which strike me as easy wins for them. That said, they could be helped along by some of the teams below them losing games as well.
— As I started the recap with, today is the 51st anniversary of the Knicks’ first championship in 1970. If you have it, take the time to watch highlights of Clyde’s historic Game 7 performance, or, as I plan to do, watch the entire game. While brighter days are certainly ahead for the franchise, it’s unlikely the Knicks will ever field a team that plays with the unselfishness and combined talent of the early 1970s Knicks. It is a shame that footage of those teams is as rare as it is, and that all we have to remember a team that played some of the most beautiful basketball ever is a handful of games and the accounts of those lucky enough to watch them.
That’s everything I have on this. The Knicks are headed to Los Angeles to take on the Clippers this Sunday, May 9.
