Knicks RIP Grizzlies, #3 in West. NY 143 Memphis 106

Deuce McBride was On Fire in the 4th quarter -- with drives, a highlight Dunk, 3's, and defense. He finished with 14 pts. Photo courtesy NY Knicks.

The Knicks BLEW the Memphis Grizzlies OFF THE COURT in the 2nd half, annihilating the #3 team in the West 143-106, on a Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

The 2nd half was a Garden Party as the Knicks shredded Memphis on Defense and got into the open floor for highlight-film play after highlight-film play.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson dominated the 3rd quarter as NY increased an 8-pt halftime lead to 27 pts, and then just when Memphis pulled back to within 16 to start the 4th, Cameron Payne lit MSG ON FIRE, and then Precious Achiuwa, OG Anunoby, and Miles McBride joined the fun with spectacular dunk after spectacular play after spectacular dunk. The rout was on as NY increased their lead to 34 pts before pulling the starters with 4 minutes left.

Memphis came in red hot and is the #3 team in the West — they had won 6 in a row coming in, and at 31-15 had a game better record than the Knicks.

Mikal Bridges was game-high scorer with 28 pts on 12-19 shooting, and did a JOB defensively on Ja Morant, who only had 10 pts on 5-13 shooting. KAT had 24 pts; Brunson 20 pts. OG Anunoby had 15 pts and 6 steals.

“They’re a tough matchup; it’s a good test for us,” said coach Tom Thibodeau afterwards. “And you have to be tied together to play against them. I loved our overall activity. I thought our defensive activity was terrific. Big time multiple-effort game. We had 20 steals — OG and Mikal were all over the place. And that set the tone for us. It’s inspiring when you get those hustle plays; it also puts you in the open floor and gets you easy baskets.”

“We also got great play from our bench,” continued Thibs. “Cam and Deuce and Landry and Precious gave us really good minutes. And Jalen and KAT same thing; Josh — the hustle was there. It was a good solid win. We started slow rebounding, but as the game went on our rebounding got better and better which got us good opportunities to get some 2nd-chance points. But the easy baskets are huge for us.”

NY — the #3 team in the East — improves to 31-16 and are now 1 game behind Boston (which lost) and still 6.5 behind Cleveland. Memphis falls to 31-16.

1. Knicks Jump Out to 13-Pt Lead in 1st Quarter

The Knicks came out with ENERGY on both offense and defense, and maintained that ENERGY throughout the game.

NY jumped out to a 23-10 lead — Mikal Bridges on fire from the start with a deuce and a drive, joined by Karl-Anthony Towns with a 3, Jalen Brunson with a pullup, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart with scores, Brunson with back-to-back 3’s, and an OG slam off a Bridges pass.

2. Bridges Does a Job on Morant

Meanwhile Mikal Bridges was doing a JOB on Ja Morant all night — primarily guarding him with help from Hart and McBride. Morant went 5-13 (0-1 from 3 and 0-0 in free throws) for 10 pts, 4 turnovers, and a -41.

“Mikal Bridges with a huge impact on both ends whether it’s his action off ball creating space for his jumper, overplay him leads to an easy 2, use of screens on one end and hedging over them on the other end while taking pride in getting stops,” noted NBA Analyst Ross Kreines. “Also, finding the open man and doing more.”

Memphis turned the ball over 26 times — some of it unforced; some of it due to the energetic Knick defense. NY had 10 turnovers.

3. Knicks Up by 8 Pts at the Half

But Memphis stayed in it — they are a good and very dangerous team. Jaren Jackson Jr went on a scoring rampage at the end of the 1st quarter — with a drive, a 3, and 2 inside buckets — and he was helped by Brandon Clarke, Santi Aldama and Morant — pulling Memphis to within 4 entering the 2nd quarter.

Precious Achiuwa made his presence felt when he entered the game to start the 2nd quarter — with Defense, shot blocking, and a dunk and a drive — as did Miles McBride with a dunk — and Mikal Bridges kept scoring as NY pushed their lead back to double digits.

But Memphis hung with the Knicks — Desmond Bane making shots, along with Luke Kennard with a 3 off the bench, and Santi Aldama being a pain in the ass — with a block of an OG drive, and then inside buckets of his own.

The 7-foot Aldama is having a good year off the bench for Memphis — averaging 12.7 ppg and 6.8 rpg. He was the #30 overall pick (1st round) in the 2021 draft by Utah, out of Loyola. He had 10 pts in 22 minutes in this game.

Mikal Bridges continued to do most of the scoring for NY in the 2nd quarter — and NY had an 8-pt halftime lead.

4. Knicks Go Up by 27 in 3rd

The Knicks came out with more of the same energy to start the 3rd — Jalen Brunson started the scoring with a drive, and then Karl-Anthony Towns hit a 3 and a floater to put NY up by 15.

And then the starters put the pedal to the metal — with Defense forcing turnovers and scores; Josh Hart was defending and distributing, OG was stealing the ball left and right, and Bridges, KAT, and Brunson were scoring at will. NY went up by 27 pts.

The Knicks relaxed a little and Memphis came right back — a 3 and a jumper by Luke Kennard, a 3 by GG Jackson, and a couple of inside buckets by the 7’4 Zach Edey pulled Memphis to within 18 to end the 3rd.

5. Cam Payne on Fire to Start 4th

Jaren Jackson Jr made 2 free throws near the start of the 4th to pull Memphis within 16 — the game was at a turning point.

And the Knicks turned it their way.

Precious Achiuwa grabbed an offensive rebound and fed OG Anunoby for a deuce, and then Cameron Payne took over — directing the offense, and hitting an 8 footer and then a splendid drive to the hoop. Landry Shamet nailed a 3 and NY was back up by 22.

Cameron Payne followed with Another splendid drive and NY was up 24 with 8:09 left. Memphis time out.

6. Knicks Blow Memphis Off Court in 4th

Out of the timeout Mikal Bridges re-entered the game and immediately hit a 3 and NY was off to the races in a LIT Madison Square Garden.

Precious was everywhere — blocking shots, rebounding on both ends. Precious blocked a drive and fed an open-court run that led to a Bridges 3.

OG was stealing the ball and setting in motion open court drives and dunks.

Achiuwa made a highlight DUNK off an Anunoby steal and feed and NY was up 29.

Cam Payne hit a 3.

OG tipped in an offensive rebound, and then Precious hit a 3, and then stole the ball and fed Bridges for a SLAM and NY was up by 34 — 128-94 with 4:16 left.

Thibs started to bring in the bench: Tyler Kolek came in and fed Miles McBride for the dunk of the game as MSG roared.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401705219

 

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