New York Knicks: Grades and reactions from latest blowout to Nuggets

The New York Knicks yet again fell apart in a game, losing by 37 points to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.

After a competitive first quarter that looked a lot like what New York Knicks fans expected coming into this season, the Knicks quickly fell apart in the second on their way to yet another blowout loss. Thursday’s loss, where not a single Knicks player finished with a positive plus/minus, extended their losing streak to eight games and five straight defeats at home.

The issues that have plagued the Knicks all season were their primary issues again, including the inability to contest three-point shots allowing Denver to shoot 23-for-38 from deep.

While Nikola Jokic continued his slow start to the season scoring only six points, the Nuggets came out like a Western Conference contender who had lost two straight while the Knicks continued to look like a team and a franchise without direction. After two more blowout losses, the seat under Fizdale is hotter than ever and the team isn’t responding in a way that will change that any time soon.

Here are the key player grades from the game:

Mitchell Robinson‘s athleticism and quickness were on full display against the Denver bigs, and the second-year center had just about as good as a game as you could expect from him to this point in his career. It would have been nice to see coach David Fizdale utilize some of the pick and rolls that were working so well in the first quarter, but with how quickly things escalated in the second quarter it’s a little hard to read too much into that.

Robinson is far from perfect and has miles to go in terms of his overall development, but he managed to stay out of foul trouble, score efficiently (6-of-8 shooting), while still contesting shots in the paint and looking the part of a future cornerstone of the franchise.

In what has been an emerging pattern, Taj Gibson had a really solid start to the game to only end up playing small minutes (18) overall. He clearly provides a calming veteran presence to this team and his defense, passing, touch, and midrange shooting make you wonder why he hasn’t gotten more opportunities late in games to help this team close out games.

One of the more disappointing games from this offseason’s biggest free-agent signing. Julius Randle finished with six points on 2-for-9 shooting and 0-for-3 from three-point range to go along with a -18 overall.  While there aren’t many positives to be taken from his game, the fact that he was able to limit himself to one turnover is somewhat a positive encouragement. If the Knicks are going to turn this season around, they are going to need much more out of Randle moving forward.

Coming off his worst game as a professional, the third overall pick struggled again putting up nine points on 4-for-10 shooting and 1-for-5 on three-pointers.  Outside of a nice take early on and a good steal leading to a Ntilikina three-pointer, Barrett had a pretty forgettable night. The fatigue of an 82-game season looks to be catching up to the rookie after such a promising start to the season. The Knicks need more out of Barrett in order to win games. I think he catches a second wind after the all-star break, and he reminds us all of his tremendous potential

Frank Ntilikina didn’t exactly light it up from the scoreboard on his first game back from injury, shooting 3-for-5 from the field and 3-for-4 from deep, but that has never really been his bread and butter.

The Frenchman played solid defense at times, but more often than not, he was switched off of the primary ball handler far too easily. Switching him off of attacking point guards takes away one of his greatest strengths and is one of the many valid criticisms of Fizdale to this point in the season.

With that said, Ntilikina was fairly efficient and continued to show improvement from three-point range. He remains point guard by default for the time being as neither Dennis Smith Jr. or Elfrid Payton were able to make up much ground on him, shooting a combined 3-for-13 in 29 total minutes.

Other Notes:

• Allonzo Trier shot 2-for-3 for six points in six minutes. He continued to flash his ability to put up buckets and should pick up more minutes as the season progresses.
• Elfrid Payton made his first game back from an injured hamstring, which has led to him missing the majority of the season. It will be interesting to see where he fits into the rotation as he works himself back into shape.

The New York Knicks will return to the court on Saturday, Dec. 7 against the Indiana Pacers.