Crapper. Kristaps Porzingis and the Washington Wizards got revenge for a nail-biter loss in Washington last Friday night, and beat the Knicks soundly at Madison Square Garden on a Wednesday night.
The Wizards jumped out to a 13-point lead after 1 quarter and pretty much held it there all night. NY made some runs to cut it to 7 in the 4th quarter, but DC immediately answered.
Mitchell Robinson sprained his thumb in the 1st quarter and was out for the rest of the game after 9 minutes.
“You miss who he is, so that’s part of it. But overall we didn’t play well,” said coach Tom Thibodeau afterwards. “We were playing from behind all night so that hurt us. They came out and were making shots early. They got a lot of confidence from that. I thought they played really well. We missed shots, and couldn’t get our defense untracked.”
NY falls to 25-22; Washington improves to 19-26.
1. Wizards Healthy
The Wizards shot the 3 ball well — and came out strong. They had Bradley Beal (18 pts) and starting point guard Monte Morris (13 pts) back from injury, and Porzingis also looked fully healed from the ACL surgery of over a year ago — he looked sprightly.
Porzingis finished with 22 pts (6-17 shooting, 4-9 from 3), 11 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Kyle Kuzma also did damage — 27 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists — although NY held him in check a little better than last game when he went for 40.
Deni Avdija burned the Knicks from the bench (6-11 shooting, 2-3 from 3 for 14 pts).
2. RJ Shot Well; JR Didn’t
RJ Barrett came out strong for the Knicks. Julius Randle came out misfiring. Some Knick fans put 1 and 1 together. Both missed all their 3-pt attempts — Barrett was 9-21 from the floor (but 0-4 from 3) for 21 pts; Randle finished 6-17 from the floor (but 0-5 from 3) for 14 pts. Randle also ripped down 15 rebounds.
Julius Randle meanwhile, started out poorly — missing shots.
3. Brunson Led Knicks
Jalen Brunson scored 32 points on 11-24 shooting (2-3 from 3; 8-8 in free throws) but only had 4 assists. The Knicks seemed to go into iso ball a lot during the evening.
Definition of crafty 😮💨
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— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) January 19, 2023
4. Quick was Quick
Immanuel Quickley ignited the Knicks at the start of the 4th quarter to get them on a run that pulled NY to within 7. Until Washington answered to regain a double-digit lead. Quick finished with 18 pts on 6-13 shooting.
How ya feelin' @IQ_GodSon 🕺🏾👀 pic.twitter.com/GsQahErDnv
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) January 19, 2023
Quentin Grimes guarded Beal and did a pretty good job. Grimes matched Beal — scoring 14 pts on 5-10 shooting (3-7 from 3).
5. Sims Looked Good
Jericho Sims got 21 minutes with Mitchell Robinson out and — as usual — looked good. Robinson is expected to be out a while and Sims and Isaiah Hartenstein will be getting extended minutes, as well as Randle playing some 5, said Thibs afterwards.
THE @deucemcb11 ➕ JERICHO SHOW 🍿😳 pic.twitter.com/5JFZb9qj4X
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) January 19, 2023
Obi Toppin played 14 minutes and took 1 shot.
6. Thibs on What Is Wrong
“We’re not playing with the speed that we need to play with,” said Thibs afterwards. “The easy baskets. The volume of 3’s has gone down so that’s a concern. We got to get that back going. A lot of that can come from our defense — create more turnovers, get into the open floor. Create more misses, get into the open floor. It doesn’t take much. We just have to work our way through it. You’re going to hit different things during the course of the season. You have to be mentally tough. It’s not going our way right now; we have to make it go our way. Bounce back tomorrow. Study. Get ready. And move forward.”
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