The NY Knicks will finish their gauntlet West Coast road trip with a record of 3-3. Still, Tuesday night’s overtime loss to the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers has left a sour taste.
It was a game that slipped away. A game that was very much played in the physical style the NY Knicks prefer to play. A rare 2021 overtime game where the score was just 101-99. This was a grueling duel where every pass, dribble, and rebound was tightly contested.
It was a game that was well within reach for New York, but they couldn’t close it out. The team led the game 89-84 with just 4:13 left on the clock. Missed shots in the dying seconds by both Julius Randle and RJ Barrett are the most painful moments to the point to. While those failed attempts occurred during the most critical possessions of the game, they were actually indicative of a much bigger problem.
NY Knicks: Attacking and finishing at the rim must improve
For a team that has been so efficient shooting the ball, it’s been hard to criticize the Knicks’ offense given the improvements they’ve already made late in the season. I wrote an article just yesterday about how they still seem to be an underrated shooting team.
The Lakers were clearly paying attention. The game was close and could have gone either way, but the Lakers’ game plan was to take away New York’s shooting, and it was effective. New York is almost better and putting the ball in the hoop from 25 feet than they are from 1 foot away.
Before we get into what Los Angeles did, let’s look at the Knicks’ season-long struggles around the cup.
The NY Knicks have struggled at the rim all season long
The arrow for the Knicks’ offense has for the most part, steadily pointed up. This team has come a long way from where they were at the start of the season. It’s a quantum leap from where they were in 2019-20.
The individual improvements from core pieces like Julius Randle and RJ Barrett and the additions of Immanuel Quickley and Derrick Rose have enlarged the scope of what we thought was possible from the NY Knicks offense.
They’re one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the NBA.
They’re also one of the worst “finishing at the rim” teams in the NBA.
From Cleaning The Glass, the Knicks as a team shoot 60.0% from within 4 feet of the basket. That’s 29th, 2nd worst in the league.
For some statistics, there are great teams who rank in the bottom 5. There are deficiencies that don’t necessarily matter if you are thriving in other more important areas.
For shooting within 4 feet, the bottom five teams are The Magic, Hornets, Cavaliers, Knicks, and Thunder. It’s not a good list.
I wrote an article earlier in the week about how the Knicks miss Mitchell Robinson’s physical presence in the paint. Between Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson, New York has had to scrape together anything they can get on the glass.
The offensive rebounding was absolutely an issue last night (NY lost the offensive rebound battle 14-5). However, it goes beyond the lack of physical presence in the paint. This is about the lack of finishing from important players.
From Cleaning The Glass: RJ Barrett shoots 55% at the rim. Julius Randle shoots 60%. Those numbers rank in the 23rd and 18th percentile for their respective positions.
What’s puzzling is that both of these players are noted for their strength. I’ve talked in length about how well Barrett can get to the rim but struggles to finish. He’s made improvements this year but still seems to have a raw move-set or layup package at the rim. He looks confident in transition, but in the half-court, he can look very clunky.
Julius Randle can also throw up some bizarre layup attempts. -We saw it happen on his last-second, awkward floater attempt in the dying seconds of the Lakers game.
Then, we saw Barrett elect to back up towards the halfcourt instead of put his head down and attack the rim in the final seconds of the game. What’s with the reluctance to use that strength and yam it down at all costs?
Again, this about more than those final two attempts. The Lakers wanted the Knicks to go to the rim. They shed light on some areas of the NY Knicks’ offense where they need to improve.
The Lakers took away the NY Knicks’ shooting
By taking away the NY Knicks’ perimeter shooting, the Lakers took away the easy baskets. Los Angeles essentially forced the Knicks to face their demons at the rim.
Again, I don’t want to make this sound like the Knicks were completely stonewalled. This was a close game throughout, but we haven’t exactly seen RJ Barrett shoot 2 of 13 or Reggie Bullock shoot 2 of 9, especially recently.
The bread and butter of Julius Randle’s All-NBA level this season has been getting him the ball in high-post. Get him the ball either at the elbow or along the baseline, and let him go to work.
He will either shimmy his defender out of his shoes and hit his patented mid-range jump shot, or the defense will bring the double team.
Typically, it’s a pass that has now become routine, where Randle dishes it to the corner or cross-court to a shooter, who either has a good look or quickly passes to a teammate for a better look. Randle racks up the assists and the hockey assists. It’s been like clockwork, to the point where we essentially welcome the double team.
The Lakers decided to take it a step farther. They swarmed the perimeter to make sure the Knicks weren’t getting those looks out of the Randle double team. The reason they can do this without getting burned in the paint?
New York doesn’t have anyone that will burn you in the paint. The Lakers were perfectly fine letting just a single player, whether it was Andre Drummond or Anthony Davis be the last guy to have to rotate into the paint. They’re not worried about Noel or Gibson.
The Lakers’ perimeter defenders like Wes Matthews were fighting through screens to make sure New York got no easy jump shots.
When the Knicks did take those threes, they were frequently more contested than they would have liked. RJ Barrett and Reggie Bullock have been cash money on catch-&-shoot threes this season but are not off-the-dribble scorers. The Lakers forced them to be off-the-dribble scorers.
It left avenues for the NY Knicks to potentially attack the rim 1-on-1 with little help defense waiting – something the Lakers would happily allow. They trusted their perimeter defenders to handle drives 1-on-1.
It worked. The Knicks shot just over 34% from 3.
They shot just 45.5% at the rim in this game which was their 3rd worst performance at the rim this season, and one that ranked in the 3rd percentile of any game by any NBA team this season.
So how can New York adjust going forward?
The NY Knicks need to get more creative
First off, there are methods of getting to the rim and finishing that the players individually can take into their own hands.
We know Randle and Barrett have overwhelming strength. We know Derrick Rose and Immanuel Quickley can blow by anyone. You just have to go up strong.
I know, the NY Knicks have been shooting lights out, but when your shot isn’t falling, you have to put your head down and take that ball to the rack. Embrace contact and at the very least, draw a foul and get to the line.
If I miss 3-straight jump shots, you best believe I’m going right to the rim and trying to draw a foul. Getting that first shot to fall after a long stretch of misses is critical.
Keep the defense honest and make them second guess themselves. I know for a fact those Knicks players can have higher at-rim percentages than the ones they have currently. They have the physical tools.
NY Knicks: How can Tom Thibodeau get more creative?
From a team standpoint, you would like to see more innovation out of the offense. There’s no “Instant fix” but I can certainly think of ways to make life more difficult for defenses without compromising the Knicks’ preferred slow pace.
This doesn’t mean get rid of the Randle isolations. Let’s not forget how he cooked the Clippers down the stretch just a few days ago. It just means experimenting more.
I would love to see the Knicks utilize Randle as a pick-and-roll man. It seems like every time he sets a pick, he’s going through the motions where he slowly parks himself in the post. The only time we get a hard run to the rim is from Taj Gibson or Nerlens Noel… not ideal.
Late in games, what about Derrick Rose running P&R with Randle. Imagine how hard that would be to defend?
Randle diving hard to the rim, or even cutting back out off of a baseline down screen for a corner three look. Defenses are going to be very preoccupied with Randle with or without the ball – get him moving around the court. Get other guys cutting back door. We rarely see a backdoor cut on this team.
It goes beyond just Randle. What about Barrett setting more screens for guards? He certainly has the strength.
Immanuel Quickley is a knockdown catch-and-shooter from 3 (He shoots them at a 48.2% clip) yet he rarely gets those looks. Almost all of his shots have to be products of his own ball-handling/creation. Get him moving off the ball. Defenses already have to worry about Randle and Rose, imagine the headache of Quickley sprinting around off of screens? It would open up the paint that much more.
The NY Knicks aren’t always going to play teams who are as good defensively as the Lakers. Still, they need to look in the mirror and ask themselves why they’re not finishing at the rim with more conviction.
This is a group of coaches and players that are always looking to put in the work to improve. They’ve shocked the world this season. If they want to continue to do so, they’ve got to start finishing at the rim.