Knicks’ defensive need for Mitchell Robinson exposed in loss to Hawks
After losing back-to-back games to the Raptors and Wizards, the Knicks made it three in a row following their loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night. This may not have been a “must-win” game but it is surely one the Knicks could’ve used as they look to continue their push into the playoffs.
The Knicks are the seventh seed in the East and are falling ever so close to dropping even more, as they are only a game ahead of the Hawks and two games ahead of the Pacers, who both have much easier schedules than the Knicks.
This was the kind of game that helped showcase how important it is for the Big Three of Jalen Brunson, RJ Barrett, and Julius Randle to be on their A-game every night. While they may not have disappointed, they definitely did not play as well as we would have liked them to.
Knicks drop third game in a row to the Hawks as defense struggles
This game showed how important Mitchell Robinson is to this team. While the offense certainly wasn’t perfect, the defense was quite awful. The Knicks shot an incredible 59% from the field and 43.3% from three as a team, however, the Hawks were nearly as impressive from an efficiency standpoint and abused New York defensively.
To shoot that well and put up 124 points as a team but end up losing is extremely painful to see, and only adds to the fire to show how badly New York needs an extra defensive-oriented player.
Even when Robinson is healthy and playing he can only do so much to help lock down the paint. Whether it be OG Anunoby, Jarred Vanderbilt, or another defensive monster, the Knicks should definitely be making some calls before the Feb. 9 trade deadline.
As for the individual players of New York, while they played pretty well offensively, they certainly left much to be desired.
Julius Randle put up a cool 32 points, nine rebounds, and six assists while shooting 11-of-22 from the field and a disappointing 3-of-10 from three. Randle has had moments of getting incredibly hot from three but last night simply wasn’t one of those games and he must learn to stop shooting so many threes when they are not falling.
I have been pretty impressed with Randle’s game for the most part this season, but it seems like he may be coming back down to earth. In his last 10 games, Randle is averaging 25.9 points, 14.5 rebounds, and 4.4 assists. While these numbers may look incredible on paper, his efficiency is pretty unimpressive, as he has shot 41.1% from the field and 29.9% from three on 8.7 attempts.
Considering how well Randle was playing before this 10-game stretch, I’ll cut him some slack, but his efficiency certainly needs to improve if this team wants to win more games. When his shots aren’t hitting and Randle just keeps chucking them up, the offense tends to get ugly.
RJ Barrett had himself another very solid game, scoring 23 points, three rebounds, and two assists while shooting 9-of-16 from the field and 3-of-5 from three. Barrett started the game off incredibly well, shooting 6-of-6 from the field at one point, so the 9-of-16 end result may be disappointing, but this was still a good game from him nonetheless.
To cap off the big three we have Jalen Brunson, who dropped 19 points and nine assists, shooting 7-of-14 from the field and 1-of-2 from three. Some fans have become rather critical of Brunson’s shot selection in recent games, and he definitely wasn’t perfect on either end of the floor. Similar to Randle, Brunson had started the new year off incredibly hot but has cooled back down since.
Hopefully, we see the Big Three go back to the incredibly high level of play we saw from them earlier in the season. At the very least, they are going to need to if they want to remain in playoff contention. Even if they don’t, with the trade deadline looming, there is a very good chance we see the front office make some moves to take the weight off of Barrett, Brunson, and Randle whether they trade for a star or some very solid role players.
