Tag: new york knicks

Jalen Brunson leads Knicks past Warriors for eighth straight win

Tom Thibodeau was close with Jalen Brunson the person, having known him since he was a young child. He had only watched him from a distance as a player, first in high school, then college and later the NBA.

But almost immediately after Brunson agreed to join the Knicks, his new coach had a good idea of why Brunson was going to be so valuable as his new point guard.

“I’ll be honest with you, when we first signed him he started coming in immediately in the summer and I knew right then, just by what he was doing,” Thibodeau said. “Not by what he was saying. Not by anything other than the way he came in and the way he worked each and every day. I knew that was exactly what we needed.”

Through the season’s first 31 games — in good times and bad, when he’s at less than 100 percent, when games are on the line — it has become clear what the addition of Brunson has meant to the Knicks. After Brunson inked that four-year, $104 million deal to leave the Mavericks, there was a narrative that he was overpaid. So far, it has been the opposite.

Jalen Brunson drives to the basket during the Knicks’ 132-94 blowout win over the Warriors.
Robert Sabo

His brilliant first season as a Knick continued Tuesday, in the form of a 22-point, five-assist, no-turnover masterpiece that led the Knicks to a 132-94 blowout of the defending champion Warriors and extended their NBA-leading win streak to eight. For the first time in nine meetings at the Garden, the Knicks beat the Warriors. This time, they had the star point guard on their side, as Golden State was without Stephen Curry due to a left shoulder injury, and they treated the Warriors like a sparring partner, instead of the other way around.

Brunson set the tone — with his scoring in the first half and passing after the break. He had plenty of help, four teammates in double figures. Immanuel Quickley snapped out of a shooting slump to hit five 3-pointers and score 22 points, Quentin Grimes had 19 points as he continued his impressive play and RJ Barrett contributed 18 points and five assists. Julius Randle was again a force inside, notching 15 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Jordan Poole led the Warriors (15-17) with 26 points.

Immanuel Quickley, who scored 22 points, shoots a jumper during the Knicks' blowout win.
Immanuel Quickley, who scored 22 points, shoots a jumper during the Knicks’ blowout win.
Robert Sabo

After averaging over 27 points on the recent 3-0 road trip, Brunson picked up where he left off. He scored 16 points in the opening half on a variety of midrange jumpers, and went on a personal 9-0 run in the second quarter that gave the Knicks their largest lead of the first half at 57-43.

The ball moved well in the opening half, the Knicks racking up 15 assists on 24 made field goals and shooting a blistering 52.2 percent from the field. They hit 10 of their 19 3-point attempts, three apiece from Grimes and Quickley, and were dominant on the glass, owning a 22-14 edge. The lead was 13 at the break, and really could’ve been larger had the Warriors not shot so well from deep, making eight of 21 attempts.

Mitchell Robinson slams one home during the Knicks’ dominant victory.
Robert Sabo

There was a scare late in the first half that halted the positive vibes momentarily. Grimes landed on the foot of Warriors guard Ty Jerome, and appeared to turn his right ankle. Jerome was assessed a Flagrant 1. Grimes hit two free throws, came out of the game, but started the second half.

Brunson used the pass instead of the shot in the third quarter, stacking up four assists in the early portion of the period as the Knicks threatened to run the Warriors off the Garden floor. After hitting a jumper, Brunson set up a Grimes 3-pointer and Barrett layup on consecutive possessions, keying a 16-6 run that pushed the Knicks lead to a then game-high 21. It nearly doubled from there, ending in a 38-point win.

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Mitchell Robinson dominates after questioning Knicks role

Mitchell Robinson was clear: He’s happy with his role on the Knicks. His tweet Tuesday, responding to a fan asking if he had ever thought of working with Amar’e Stoudemire on his non-existent post game, wasn’t a knock on anyone.

“The way we play is not set for me to do any moves,” the center tweeted in his response to the fan.

When asked about the tweet, Robinson said it was “my business.” Regarding his role with the Knicks, he said: “If I was unhappy, I wouldn’t have [done] what I came out here and did today and last game. I would’ve just chilled out and just [said], ‘Oh well.’ ”

Robinson, indeed, left it all out on the floor Wednesday night, scoring 15 points and grabbing 20 rebounds in the Knicks’ 109-103 loss to Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. Of the 20 boards, 11 were on the offensive glass. He was the lone Knick with a positive rating (plus-four).

“That was one of the more impressive efforts I’ve seen from an individual on the offensive boards,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “He was relentless.”

Mitchell Robinson, who scored 15 points and grabbed 20 rebounds, goes up for a shot during the Knicks’ 109-103 loss to the Bucks.
NBAE via Getty Images

Robinson said he still doesn’t feel 100 percent after a sprained right knee cost him eight games. He said he’s working on his stamina and conditioning, though he did play 33 minutes Wednesday after logging 26 minutes Tuesday in a win over the Pistons.

“From the last time we played [the Bucks], I had to come out with a different mindset,” Robinson said, referring to his five-point, nine-rebound effort in a loss to Milwaukee on Oct. 30. “Last time we played them, I almost fouled out and I wasn’t myself. I had to learn from my mistake last game and I brought it to this game.”

As far as working out with Stoudemire, as the fan asked, Robinson seemed ambivalent.

“If he comes to the gym we can work out, yeah,” he said.

Mitchell Robinson, who scored 15 points and grabbed 20 rebounds, shoots a hook shot over Brook Lopez during the Knicks’ loss.
Robert Sabo

Quentin Grimes made his sixth straight start at shooting guard and finished with seven points and five rebounds in 34 minutes. After missing much of the first month of the season due to a left foot injury, Grimes is beginning to hit his stride.

“He’s been really good. Defensively, he’s been terrific,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I think he’s starting to find his rhythm now offensively. We knew it would take some time. He adds a lot. He guards multiple positions, multiple-effort guy.”

Ryan Arcidiacono (sprained left ankle) was out. … The Bucks were without Khris Middleton (left wrist), who has yet to play this season. He is “close” to making his season debut, Budenholzer said.

Isaiah Hartenstein only played 10 minutes, but Thibodeau said that was because the Knicks wanted to make sure Julius Randle or Robinson was on the floor to defend Antetokounmpo whenever he was out there. … Jalen Brunson turned his right ankle early in the first quarter and went into the locker took to get it taped up before returning late in the quarter. He said afterward that he was fine.

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Knicks’ Quentin Grimes regains 3-point shooting touch

DETROIT — The Knicks’ team-wide shooting malaise from 3-point range hadn’t bypassed Quentin Grimes since he returned from weeks of injury uncertainty.

But the second-year guard rediscovered his outside touch Tuesday night, nailing three of four shots from long distance and finishing with a season-high 16 points in the Knicks’ 140-110 win over Detroit.

“I think he’s starting to find his rhythm offensively,” Tom Thibodeau said after the game.

Grimes made his fifth consecutive start after dealing with a nagging foot injury since training camp. He connected on 38.1 percent from long distance as a rookie, but he missed 20 of his first 26 tries from beyond the arc this season through Sunday’s loss to the Grizzlies.

“I use a lot of legs in my jump shot, but I know the work I put in. It’ll come around,” Grimes said before the game. “It’s only four or five games in, just being at full game speed with 30-plus minutes. So I know it’ll come, for sure. Just gotta keep getting my legs underneath me.”

Quentin Grimes
NBAE via Getty Images

Thibodeau emptied the bench in the blowout, but former starter Evan Fournier — making $18 million this season — didn’t get off the bench for an eighth straight game.

“Outside of hard, there’s nothing else to say,” Fournier said. “Trying to do my job, be supportive, be a good teammate, and do my work. And that’s it.”

Immanuel Quickley had been questionable to play with the sore knee that knocked him out of Sunday’s game against Memphis, but he scored 15 points in 21 minutes.

Derrick Rose said the toe issue that kept him out of two games last week was suffered ahead of the game in Phoenix that he departed at halftime on Nov. 20.

Rose, who played 12 minutes Sunday against Memphis in his return to the rotation, said the injury was “a toenail problem,” but he’s “towards the end of it now.” He scored five points in a season-high 25 minutes.

The Knicks waived Feron Hunt from a two-way contract and signed forward DaQuan Jeffries to a two-way deal. Jeffries attended training camp with the Knicks and has been playing for their Westchester G-League affiliate.

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Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic enters health and safety protocols

The Nuggets will have to face the Knicks without Nikola Jokic on Wednesday night.

The Denver big man and two-time reigning MVP was placed into the NBA’s health and safety protocols, according to the team’s injury report.

Jokic will need to be cleared under NBA guidelines in order to return or wait 10 day to automatically exit protocol. He joins guard Bones Hyland, who entered the protocol last Friday.

Nikola Jokic will miss Wednesday’s game against the Knicks after entering the NBA’s healthy and safety protocols.
Getty Images

Through 13 games this season, Jokic is averaging 20.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 8.9 assists while guiding Denver to a 9-4 record — 5-1 in its last six — good for second in the Western Conference.

The Nuggets will travel to Dallas for a two-game set with the Mavericks on Friday and Sunday.

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This is the fight the superstar-less Knicks need to show

PHILADELPHIA — Even though mediocre teams are never supposed to win on the road against superior opponents, the Knicks had absolutely no choice but to win Friday. They were not exactly facing the Julius Erving-Moses Malone 76ers. 

In fact, they weren’t even facing the Joel Embiid-James Harden 76ers. With Philadelphia’s two franchise players out, and with the deep, rough-and-tumble Eastern Conference offering no free passes, the Knicks needed to prove to themselves — and to everyone else — that they could at least sink a five-foot uphill putt after it had been practically conceded. 

They did not hit that putt dead center. No, it did a 360 spin around the cup before falling at last, leaving the visitors at Wells Fargo Center looking more relieved than joyful at the final horn Friday night. 

No surprise there. As a rule, nothing will come easily to this middling group. These are the Knicks after all, and after seven games the best thing that could be said about them is that they aren’t the Nets, and that maybe it isn’t such a horrible thing in the end that they failed to sign Kyrie Irving (with Kevin Durant) in the summer of 2019. 

(The Knicks offered an apology to their fan base after that failure. Yes, that can be retracted now.) 

But this eighth game, a 106-104 victory over Philly, might’ve done a lot more than get the Knicks back to .500. They were down 12 points early in the fourth quarter, and they didn’t have a clue how to cover Tyrese Maxey, the emerging star who scored 27 points in the first 36 minutes. While watching Immanuel Quickley’s college teammate repeatedly blow by a parade of overmatched defenders, it was hard not to think that the Knicks ended up with the wrong Kentucky guard in the 2020 draft. 

The Knicks dug into a needed identity against the 76ers.
Getty Images

What else is new, right? This was looking like another night to whine in print about the Knicks’ lack of a true superstar, their inability to trade for Donovan Mitchell or Dejounte Murray, and the fact that Mitchell, Murray, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Ja Morant — the four men most responsible for the Knicks’ four early defeats — had combined for 138 points and 39 assists in those games, delivering performances that you won’t be seeing on Tom Thibodeau’s side of the box score. 

Only it didn’t play out like that. Thibodeau’s decision to start Quentin Grimes turned out to be a non-factor as Grimes scored two points and was minus-20 in 15 minutes. The Knicks committed 13 turnovers before 14 minutes of basketball had been played, they squandered a five-point halftime lead with a dreadful third quarter after Mitchell Robinson left the game with a bum knee, but then they overcame it all. 

“We fought,” RJ Barrett said. “It was beautiful to see.” 

Yes, an ugly game can indeed be a beautiful thing. Obi Toppin was making plays all over the floor — and making a persuasive case for the Toppin-Julius Randle pairing that keeps Thibs up at night — while Jalen Brunson was giving some locals in the crowd a reminder of what he did for Villanova, slicing down the lane for a basket, a drawn foul, and a three-point play with 1:05 left that was one of the biggest sequences of the night. 

Asked beforehand what Brunson has brought to his new team, Sixers coach Doc Rivers said: “Leadership. Toughness. Big shot maker. Winner. Other than that … [laughter]. No, really, I think all those things are what he’s good at. I don’t think you look at him and see one thing that stands out, other than all the intangibles that make him a really good player.” 

Jalen Brunson dribbles during the Knicks’ win over the 76ers.
Getty Images

Brunson led the Knicks with 23 points and seven assists against only one turnover. He is not much to look at athletically, but he is too smart and efficient with the ball for that to matter. 

“We were very resilient,” Brunson said. “We’ve had a lot of opportunities in other games. We’ve been up and we’ve been down and we came up short the last couple of those. But we finally did enough to win.” 

That was the best part of the whole thing. Even with the addition of Brunson, the Knicks don’t have a lot of talent. They have a number of good players, but no great ones. If they want any shot of making the real playoffs, and staying out of the play-in tournament, they need to show consistent competitive heart from here until springtime. 

“To me, you need that in everything in life,” said Barrett, who scored 22 points. “You’ve got to compete in everything to just try to do the best. We’ll definitely need that throughout the season.” 

The Knicks don’t have an anchor. They don’t have a face of the franchise, and their hope that Barrett will grow into one is a 50-50 proposition at best. 

They have to do all of the little things to compensate for the dearth of big names capable of doing the big things. 

Thibodeau put it this way: “We’re asking everyone to sacrifice and put the team first. If we do that, we have a chance.” 

The Knicks fought for their chance to win on Friday night. They’d better keep their boxing gloves laced tightly for the next five months. 

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Knicks’ RJ Barrett finally makes first 3-pointers of season

It took 11 tries and until the third quarter of the third game, but RJ Barrett finally got off the 3-point schneid on Monday night.

Barrett knocked down three second-half 3-pointers and scored 18 of his 20 points after the break to help the Knicks knock off the Magic, 115-102, at the Garden.

“It was going to have to happen eventually,” said Barrett, who had a team-best, plus-22 rating in 38 minutes. “I work on them all the time. My teammates are with me, the whole staff is with me, so when they’re there I gotta shoot them.”

Despite shooting just 1 of 9 in the first half, Barrett didn’t stop looking for his shot, and his teammates didn’t stop giving him the ball.

“It says a lot about our team, struggling in the first half obviously, but the whole team stuck with me, everybody was being positive, and I was able to deliver,” Barrett said. “It shows how our team cares about each other and we try to get everybody involved.”

RJ Barrett
Noah K. Murray

Coach Tom Thibodeau closed the game with Immanuel Quickley rather than reinserting starter Evan Fournier. The Knicks coach liked Quickley’s performance even though he went scoreless. The third-year guard had eight assists and six rebounds.

“Just the way the game unfolded,” Thibodeau said. “It gave us our best chance.”

The Knicks faced arguably the top rookie in the league Monday night.

Paolo Banchero, the No. 1-overall pick out of Duke, made his professional Garden debut and scored a team-high 21 points in the loss. Banchero was somewhat of a surprise to go No. 1 — Chet Holmgren and Jabari Smith Jr. were considered the favorites. But so far, Banchero has looked the part, averaging 23.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.0 blocks in three games.

“I think he’s really gifted. He has a great feel for the game,” Thibodeau said before the game. “I watched a lot of his games last year, he had tremendous poise and he’s brought that into the NBA. He was NBA-ready coming in.”

Banchero led Duke to the Final Four in his lone year in college. Now he’s hoping to turn around the Magic, which is coming off its ninth losing season in the last 10 years.

Second-year guard Quentin Grimes (sore left foot) remained out.

“He’s doing some things,” Thibodeau said. “So right now it’s just making sure that we’re giving the proper treatment and rest to let everything calm down and go from there.”

Grimes missed almost the entire preseason, played in the final game and felt discomfort the following day. He has yet to return to practice as a full participant.

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Scalpers sue MSG after Knicks, Rangers tix aren’t renewed

No matter who wins this lawsuit, fans will likely lose.

Two dozen Knicks and Rangers season ticket holders — self described “resellers” who glom up tickets and then sell them on StubHub and secondary markets at inflated prices — accuse Madison Square Garden of cutting them off to increase its own profits, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.

The plaintiffs, mostly tri-state area residents and one Israeli, say MSG for years willingly sold them ducats, but now that the Rangers are “a perennial playoff contender” and the Knicks “relevant” again, the Garden wants its tickets back.

The Sept. 7 filing has fueled an epic battle between the plaintiffs’ attorneys and MSG. On Friday, the Post reported that nearly 60 lawyers at the commercial law and government relations firm of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron have been banned from Rangers and Knicks games because their clients are suing MSG, new court papers allege.

The plaintiffs said the Knicks are finally “relevant” again.
for the NY POST

In the September case, the scorned scalpers contend “MSG’s end game is to reclaim the tickets, create a monopoly, and reap a windfall by selling the tickets exclusively through its own ‘authorized’ out-of-state reseller,” the Sept. 7 filing says. Currently, face-value tickets can only be purchased directly from Ticketmaster or the Garden’s box office.

“After many years of relying on [the local resellers] to purchase Knicks and Rangers season tickets at exorbitant prices when the teams respective performance and records were abysmal, MSG has in utter bad faith elected to not renew” their season tickets, the suit says.

The 21-page complaint paints the scalpers in a noble light.

Now, face-value tickets can only be purchased from Ticketmaster or the Garden’s box office.
AP

“For years plaintiffs have been loyal to MSG through playoff droughts, postseason
failures, coaching musical chairs, and constant disruptive sideshows. During that same time period, it was MSG who actively solicited plaintiffs’ business, including through the COVID-19 pandemic,” the suits says.

An MSG spokesman countered, “We want our season ticket memberships to be made up of our loyal Knicks and Rangers fans, not professional ticket brokers. This lawsuit is without merit, and we maintain the right to not offer season tickets.”

In the latest salvo, the legal eagles allege MSG declared the historic arena was “banning” the firm’s “attorneys from entering venues owned and operated” by MSG, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Thursday.

It came as a surprise to most of the firm’s team who aren’t involved in the legal brawl with MSG, and who now find themselves “pariahs,” the Thursday filing claims. The suit is asking for an emergency order from a judge to reinstate firm co-founder and managing partner Larry Hutcher’s season tickets and overturn the ban against the firm.

Either way, there is no free lunch for Rangers or Knicks fans.

The plaintiffs also allege that the Rangers are “a perennial playoff contender.”
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Po

A center-ice seat for the Rangers-Tampa Bay Lightning opening-night game on Oct. 11 ran $1,100 if you purchased through MSG-partner Ticketmaster, but upwards of $2,000 on the secondary market. A ticket near the floor at the Knicks’ opening game Oct. 21 vs. the Detroit Pistons will cost you $1,991 if you buy on the secondary market, and $490 through Ticketmaster, according to recent listings.

The Garden’s actions restrict the “existing free market” and will drive up ticket prices, the scalpers claim.

“There is no doubt that the average ticket buyer would be benefited by our success in the lawsuit because it will establish a real market place for the tickets,” said Hutcher, the attorney for the ticket brokers who is now in crosshairs of the latest litigation.

At least one sports junkie wasn’t buying either side’s spiel in the original dispute.

“It’s a lose-lose situation for the fans,” said diehard Knicks follower Michael Alcazar, 55. “It’s hard for me to feel sorry for the [resellers]. In the end, I’m still paying a high mark-up for the tickets and the Garden prices are exorbitant too,” the Queens-bred criminal justice professor said.

The suit seeks unspecified damages.

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Tom Thibodeau won’t reel in Obi Toppin’s flashy dunking ‘gift’

Obi Toppin joked Monday that he doesn’t look at head coach Tom Thibodeau on the Knicks’ bench after executing a flashy dunk during games, such as his between-the-legs slam that invigorated the Garden during the preseason win over the Pacers on Friday. 

“I’ve trained myself not to look at Thibs anymore. Because every time I look at Thibs, I get in my head,” Toppin said after practice in Tarrytown. “So I just get back on defense, and pray, and [be] happy it went in.” 

Toppin smiled broadly, but said he hasn’t decided yet whether he will defend his Slam Dunk title at the 2022-23 All-Star weekend in Salt Lake City in February. 

“I just want the two points. But the thing is, he’s a great finisher. I want him to be himself,” Thibodeau said. “He plays with emotion. The value of a dunk is pretty high when you look at the point value. 

Obi Toppin dunks during the Knicks’ preseason win over the Pacers.
Noah K. Murray-NY Post
Tom Thibodeau does not want to take away Obi Toppin’s gift.
Robert Sabo for the NY POST

“So, I think the more he dunks, the better. I’m not for all the crazy stuff, but he’s gifted, and I don’t want to take his gift away from him.” 

The 24-year-old Toppin listed his favorite dunkers of all-time as Vince Carter, Zach LaVine, Aaron Gordon, Gerald Green and his father, longtime New York streetball legend Obadiah Toppin Sr., whose nickname was Dunker’s Delight. 

Toppin said his dad can still dunk, but joked that he’d beat his father in a contest because “he can’t do all the crazy things he used to.” 

Toppin also connected on 4 of 7 attempts from 3-point range in the win over the Pacers and finished with a team-high 24 points. 

Thibodeau rested Evan Fournier on Friday, and he gave Julius Randle the day off from practice Sunday at Columbia. The coach said he’s unsure if any veterans will sit out the game Wednesday at Indiana or the preseason final Friday at the Garden against the Wizards. 

Toppin, a Brooklyn native who attended Ossining High School in Westchester County, said he’s a fan of the Yankees, who will open the ALDS against the Guardians on Tuesday. He also threw out a ceremonial first pitch at Citi Field before a Mets game in August. 

“We’re going to get on that Yankee field one day. It’s all right. We got to,” Toppin said, before he was asked about AL home-run record holder Aaron Judge. “He’s amazing. … He’s a great role model. Congrats to him and everything that’s coming his way.”

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