The Knicks came out with a blistering attack — passing and hitting 3’s from all over the court, and defended on the other end — to take an early double-digit lead they held all night in thumping the Suns, 138-122 on a Wednesday night in Phoenix.
Jalen Brunson started the game off ON FIRE — hitting consecutive 3’s, and was soon joined by OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Josh Hart as NY couldn’t miss a shot — literally — the Knicks hit their first 8 shots of the game to race out to a 20-6 lead.
NY led by 16 at the end of the 1st quarter, by 22 in the 2nd quarter, and by 23 in the 3rd quarter — before holding off two Phoenix comeback attempts that got the Suns back to within 11 in the 3rd before NY pushed the lead back to 19, and 12 points midway through the 4th — before NY pushed it back to a 20-pt lead.
Jalen Brunson had 36 pts on 12-21 shooting (7-11 from 3) with 10 assists. Karl-Anthony Towns had 34 pts on 12-19 shooting (3-8 from 3) with 10 rebounds. Josh Hart had 19 pts on 8-11 shooting (2-3 from 3), 11 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. As a team the Knicks had 30 assists, shot 48.7 % from 3, and had 10 steals.
“The guys are starting to get used to playing off each other,” said coach Tom Thibodeau afterwards. “Each game you can see they’re seeing things; they’re reading the game extremely well; they’re creating good spacing; they’re cutting extremely well — and what that’s doing it’s opening up the floor and we’re playing into space; and everyone’s unselfish. Thirty assists — I think that’s huge. And when we’re getting blitzed everyone’s getting to the right spots at the right time; making the extra pass.”
“We caused some turnovers and we got into the open floor and I think those easy baskets helped us as well,” added Thibs. “The activity of OG and Josh was off the charts. Their steals and getting us into the open floor — big time. I thought Jalen’s aggressiveness to start the game was big for us as well, then KAT, and Cam (Payne) came in and gave us great minutes off the bench. And Mikal (Bridges) was all over the place. Tyler (Kolek) gave us good minutes; Jericho (Sims) his activity: big. Everyone just doing their job. Rebounding good. And they spread you out — they shoot a lot of 3’s — you have to fly around; when you have a guy like (Devin) Booker it requires everyone making a 3rd and 4th effort, and I think we did that.”
NY improves to 9-6. Phoenix falls to 9-7.
1. Knicks Come Out Blistering
With the addition of Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Cameron Payne in the last year — to add to Jalen Brunson and Miles McBride — the Knicks are a team of SNIPERS now. They can all shoot the 3 to a very high percentage and Thibs and the coaching staff have implemented an efficient, passing, motion offense with constant cutting and sharing of the ball.
And the Knicks came out in this one ON FIRE — with Jalen Brunson hitting back-to-back 3’s to start off, then feeding Mikal Bridges for a dunk, then Bridges following up with a 3, Karl-Anthony Towns making consecutive floaters inside, Josh Hart joining the action with a drive and NY had made 8 shots in a row and was leading 20-6.
THE KNICKS CAN’T MISS IN PHOENIX pic.twitter.com/TkomCQCh7k
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 21, 2024
Then Brunson knocked down consecutive pullups and NY was up 25-13.
Josh Hart knocked down a 3, OG Anunoby dunked off a Hart assist and made a layup off a Bridges assist and NY was up 32-16.
By the end of the 1st quarter, NY was up 44-28.
2. NY Defense Didn’t Let Up
Part of the Knicks offense was their defense — they did not let up despite the 138-122 final score.
Phoenix is well coached by Mike Budenholzer, and started the season 9-2 before losing 4 in a row coming in — due in part to injuries to Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant — who were out for this game. Durant (averaging 27.6 ppg) has missed the last 7 games, and Phoenix is 1-6 in them; Beal (averaging 17.8 ppg) has missed the last 5 and Phoenix has lost them all.
But it is hard to believe Durant and Beal would have made a difference as Knick defenders were all over the Suns like a cheap suit. All Budenholzer could do is watch as Anunoby and Hart were picking off passes or getting steals and setting up fast breaks in the other direction.
Josh Hart. pic.twitter.com/pErXrwifqj
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 21, 2024
3. Knicks Dispel Suns Run in 3rd
But the Suns still have Devin Booker — and he and Royce O’Neale led a charge midway through the 3rd that pulled Phoenix within 11.
O’Neale started it with a 3, Tyrus Jones hit a 3, O’Neale hit another 3, Booker hit a drive, O’Neale hit another 3, and Ryan Dunn hit a 3 to slice the Knick lead to 88-77.
But Josh Hart banged back with a 3, Brunson hit a runner, and KAT hit a 3 and NY was back up by 19 at 97-79.
Jalen Brunson hit his first 5 threes tonight in Phoenix 🔥
His perfect mark behind the arc ended at 14 triples – he went 9-for-9 from deep in the Knicks’ game in Phoenix last season pic.twitter.com/nqfloGwNPx
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 21, 2024
4. Knicks Push Back Suns Run in 4th
Back-to-back 3’s by Jusuf Nurkic and Devin Booker early in the 4th pulled Phoenix back within 15 as they tried to mount a final counterattack. A Booker drive-and-1 pulled the Suns to within 12 at 120-108 with 7:10 left.
It was the turning point of the game, said Jamal Crawford — doing the analysis of the game on the MSG broadcast alongside Mike Breen.
And the Knicks responded — with Defense, and consecutive drives by Hart and Towns and then a 3 by Towns with 5 minutes left to put NY up by 19 again.
KAT makes it look easy 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/aGnm1zdAs9
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) November 21, 2024
Etcetera
Jamal Crawford did a terrific job as the analyst on the MSG broadcast alongside Mike Breen. Crawford is calm and well spoken and insightful.
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