New York Knicks: 3 Up, 3 Down Following Blowout Loss to New Orleans

The New York Knicks fell to the New Orleans Pelicans 110-96, their eighth loss in the last nine games. It wasn’t fun to watch, but who’s up and who’s down following the game?

The New York Knicks are puzzling. They lose, acknowledge their problems, commit to fixing them, and then, when the next game comes, succumb to the same problems. They’ve given up 60 or more points in the first half in four of their last five games.

Sigh.

Here are three Knicks who were up and three who were down following the loss.

Three Up

Brandon Jennings — Starting for Derrick Rose (we’ll get to that later), Jennings played his third-most efficient game of the season. He went 8-for-14 from the field, including 4-of-9 from 3-point territory, for 20 points—a team high. He also added four assists and five rebounds.

Ron Baker — Are you on the Baker bandwagon? He stuffed the stat sheet, albeit in mostly garbage time. He played the third-most minutes on the team, scored six points on 3-of-5 shooting, grabbed seven rebounds, and even added a steal. More than the numbers, Baker just always seems to try and find the open guy or the guy with the mismatch. In addition, on a team full of shooters, Baker is more than happy taking a backseat. Is a rotation shakeup coming?

Willy Hernangomez — I’m trying my best, but Hernangomez did look good in garbage time. He scored six points on 3-of-4 shooting, including a nice up-and-under move, and added four rebounds and three assists.

Three Down

Derrick Rose — Stephon Marbury, anyone? In all seriousness though, what happened?

3-point Defense — Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The Pelicans made 10 threes in the first half. They average 9.2 a game. The Knicks’ defense does not extend to the 3-point line. Five of their last six opponents have hit 11 or more threes. The Knicks are now 20th in the NBA in 3-point percentage defense, as they’ve allowed opponents to shoot 43.2 percent from deep in their last three games.

Ejections — Carmelo Anthony wanted no part of this game. Kyle O’Quinn was tossed after a questionable flagrant foul.

The best ability is availability. An early shower doesn’t help anyone.

Next: Who Could The Knicks Trade For To Solve These Problems?

Bonus:

I hate bringing this up, but what was up with the referees in the second quarter? They missed three obvious calls. The first, a foul called on O’Quinn when he blocked Anthony Davis; the second, a foul called on Lance Thomas when Tyreke Evans pushed off; and the third, an offensive foul called on Kristaps Porzingis.

As if the Knicks weren’t hard enough to watch already.