3 reasons Knicks were humiliated by Nets in blowout loss
1: Failing to run an offense
Stop us if you’ve heard this already this season, but the Knicks played what I hope will be one of their worst games of the year. To start, New York was struggling on defense and couldn’t set anything up on the offensive end. It was ugly basketball and because Thibs is Thibs, he let his team embarrass themselves on the court for nine minutes without making a substitution.
The Knicks shot a season-low 32.2% on offense that resulted in a season-low 85 points. It can’t be attributed to the Nets being a good defensive team, either. To put it simply — New York couldn’t knock down anything.
Jalen Brunson had his worst game as a Knick with 14 points (4-for-14 from the field and 1-for-5 from three), three turnovers, and only two assists. The offense didn’t flow through him because New York was more preoccupied with playing 1-on-1 than playing team basketball.
Julius Randle finished with a team-high 24 points and was hot from the three-point line early on, but as we’ve seen already, he looked more like the player that he was last season. The Knicks are a different team, so there’s no excuse for Randle to continue to play isolation ball. He had 21 points at the half, but four turnovers that were a result of over-dribbling. Randle could be positive on this team, but until he fully accepts an off-ball role, that isn’t going to happen.
As good as the Knicks looked against the Timberwolves on Monday, they took two (more like 20) steps back against the Nets. This team was never meant to be a contender, but there was still no reason for New York’s lack of effort. Accountability needs to be a theme moving forward, or this season could end up looking a lot uglier than expected.
