1 stud and 1 dud from Knicks’ tough loss to Nets team without Kevin Durant
Following a big-time victory over the Boston Celtics, the Knicks weren’t able to have repeat results against the Nets in Brooklyn on Saturday night, losing 122-115. This was a rough game to watch on both sides of the ball for the Knicks, especially on defense.
The Nets hit 22 of their 40 threes, absolutely destroying the Knicks’ perimeter defense. Alongside this, the Nets shot 52.9% as a team. There were simply no answers for just about anyone on the Nets, and this combined with recent games has many fans hoping for a change to improve the Knicks’ defense.
Regardless, there were a few players on the Knicks that really showed out, and some that didn’t who let the team down in a big game. We will be focusing on one player for each side of the spectrum, as one of these guys kept the Knicks in the game while the other was a big reason for their loss.
1 stud and 1 dud from the Knicks’ tough loss to the Nets
Dud: Quentin Grimes
Coming off of back-to-back poor games, I was hopeful that Quentin Grimes would bounce back in Brooklyn. However, I was quite wrong, as Grimes did not show up at all this game, especially down the stretch.
Grimes scored 10 points and four rebounds, shooting 4-of-11 from the field and 2-of-7 from behind the arc. In addition to this, Grimes missed a beyond wide-open three that would have brought the Knicks within one with 1:45 left in the game.
Grimes has been struggling recently on both sides of the ball, while it may not be all his fault defensively considering he’s been asked to guard superstar talent in the last three games, his offense has just been bad.
Arguably the best part of Grimes’ game, his three ball, has not been falling at all, as he has shot 5-of-20 in his last three games. Considering how bad of a three-point shooting team the Knicks already are, Grimes needs to improve.
Grimes is crucial to the Knicks’ spacing, so when his shots aren’t hitting and defenses begin to sag off of him as we have seen in the last couple of games, the offense can get pretty brutal to watch.
When this happens, defenses are much more inclined to trap Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson, and RJ Barrett, making turnovers occur much more often and making everyone’s lives difficult on offense.
While I’m confident that we’ll see Grimes return to form soon, this game showcased how crucial he can be to the offense when he is hitting his shots. The Knicks cannot afford many more poor shooting performances from the 22-year-old. New York may have won two of their last three, but all of these games have been much closer than they should’ve been, so a positive offensive Grimes would give the team a boost.
Stud: Julius Randle
This was an incredibly tough choice to make, as the big three of Randle, Brunson, and Barrett all played pretty well this game. However, Randle’s versatility in this game gave him the edge over the other two.
In 38 minutes of action, Randle scored 19 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists while shooting 7-of-16 from the field and 1-of-5 from three. While his efficiency may not have been all there, his playmaking and rebounding are what did the job when compared to the other two previously mentioned.
Alongside this, Randle was huge for the Knicks during their comeback attempt in the fourth quarter, however, Kyrie Irving put the finishing touches on the game for Brooklyn and stole it from New York.
Randle has been killing the game all season long and while his scoring was not as incredible as it has been, he made up for it with his playmaking, something we have not seen much of this year.
From an offensive standpoint, almost everyone on the Knicks played very fine this game, it was just another showcasing of how badly New York needs to improve on defense whether they make a trade or make a change to the rotation.
The Knicks are amid a very difficult slate of games, so to win two out of three to start is rather impressive. However, when looking at the Knicks’ upcoming competition, the defense needs to improve or else we could see the team slip down the Eastern Conference standings.
