A Good Loss. Knicks Lose Opener in Memphis in OT, 115-112

October 21, 2022 LouV 2022-23 0

Last year the Memphis Grizzlies went 56-26, beat Minnesota in the 1st round, and lost to eventual champion Golden State 4 games to 2 in the 2nd round. That’s how good they are.

The Knicks opened their season in Memphis, and did not play particularly well for most of the game, yet lost in Overtime, 115-112.

That despite RJ Barrett having the worst night of his NBA career, shooting 3-18, and Immanuel Quickley offering no help, going 0-6 for 0 points in 17 minutes. And Quentin Grimes being out.

So it was a good loss. Julius Randle played well and the unexpected star of the game was Cam Reddish — who had looked horrid in the preseason.

1. Knicks Came Out with Not Enough Energy — Except Mitch

The Knicks came out to start the season with not enough energy to match that of the Memphis Grizzlies, who immediately jumped out to a 13-7 lead. Mitchell Robinson started banging inside — grabbing an offensive rebound here, and blocking a John Konchar layup there to start the Knicks rolling. By the time Robinson was spelled by Isaiah Hartenstein with 4 minutes left in the quarter, NY had a 16-15 lead.

2. Knicks Smoked in the 2nd

The game was tied with 9 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, but Memphis started to pull away — slowly at first but by the end of the quarter they smoked NY to gain a 61-46 halftime lead.

There was some good Knick action at the beginning of the quarter — especially the give-and-go’s between Isaiah Hartenstein and Obi Toppin.

But by the end of the quarter, Memphis kept hitting shots, and the Knicks kept missing shots, highlighted by RJ Barrett who missed 3 shots down the stretch.

3. Randle Anchors Knick Comeback in 3rd

Memphis increased their lead to 67-48 early in the 3rd quarter, and many Knick fans turned their attention to the 1st game of the Yankees-Astros ALCS that was playing out at the same time.

But Julius Randle and the Knicks began to slowly get back into it.

  • Randle made a layup,
  • Barrett tipped one in,
  • Randle hit an inside runner,
  • Brunson hit a 3,
  • Isaiah Hartenstein hit an inside jumper,
  • Barrett made a layup off a Hartenstein pass,
  • Evan Fournier was fouled attempting a 3 — and hit all 3 free throws to make it a 10-pt game, and then
  • Julius Randle hit an inside jumper, and
  • Randle drove for a layup and NY was within 6 — 80-74 with 3:15 left in the quarter. Memphis timeout.

4. Reddish the Star of the 4th

Cam Reddish hit a jumper at the end of the 4th as a prelude to the 4th quarter, when he took over, scoring 11 of his 22 points.

  • Reddish hit a jumper to start the period to make it 85-83 Memphis,
  • Reddish hit a drive with 8:04 left to make it 90-85 Memphis,

  • Reddish grabbed a rebound, and went full court to hit a drive with 5:52 left to make it 94-87 Memphis, and
  • Reddish hit a drive and 1 with 4:50 left to pull NY to within 94-92.

In between all that Reddish was grabbing other rebounds and had a steal.

Finally, on the last play regulation — and seemingly the game — Reddish got the ball in the left corner off a Jalen Brunson drive and kick out, and hit a Huge 3 to tie the game with 3.3 seconds left.

 

5. Brunson Takes the Charge: Great D

With the game tied and 3.3 seconds left, Ja Morant drove the lane for an attempted game-winning layup, but Jalen Brunson was there to draw the HUGE charge. “He almost avoided it, but I just got in position and was able to get the call,” said Brunson afterwards (courtesy Zack Braziller of the NY Post).

At the start of the 4th quarter, the Knicks seemingly took the lead when Jalen Brunson was ahead of the field off a turnover forced by the Knicks D — but was seemingly fouled by Ja Morant from behind, sending Brunson sprawling. Some thought Morant also goal tended the basketball. Amazingly, there was no call on the play, and the ball went back the other way for a Brandon Clarke dunk off a Morant feed.

It was the turning point of the game.

The Knicks got buckets from Hartenstein and Reddish in the quarter — and the game was tied 112-112 when Tyus Jones hit a 3 with 47 seconds left.

Down 115-112, Evan Fournier took a 3 at the buzzer that rolled out, for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468024

 

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