A “Good Loss”, But Not a “Great Loss”. Oklahoma City 111 NY 100

March 31, 2026 LouV 2025-26 0
KAT had 15 pts (on 5-9 shooting, 5-5 in free throws) and 18 rebounds.

It was, by all traditional criteria, “A Good Loss” — the Knicks putting up a fight to the end but losing 111-100 to the defending champ — and once seemingly invincible — Thunder in Oklahoma City. It was NY’s 2nd close loss in 2 games against Oklahoma this year.

But it wasn’t a “great loss” — because the Knicks played well — across the board — but still didn’t really threaten the Thunder, who seemed to have the mental edge down the stretch. NY seemed shy in the 4th — with not nearly the confidence they’ve had in beating San Antonio — the #2 team in the West — twice this year in 3 times.

Still the Knicks were right there — down 97-95 with 4:47 left in the game, when Shai-Gilgeous Alexander scored 3 straight buckets for 7 straight points — part of a 10-0 Thunder run to pull away.

Jalen Brunson was phenomenal all game — even Oklahoma’s physical defense could not stop him or even slow him down. He scored 32 pts on 13-22 shooting (4-7 from 3) with 5 assists. Karl-Anthony Towns was a beast inside in the 2nd half — finishing with 18 rebounds and 15 pts on 5-9 shooting — most of that in the 4th quarter. Josh Hart shot 5-7 from 3 (and 5-9 overall) for 15 pts. And Mikal Bridges did his part — 15 pts on 6-11 shooting (2-5 from 3) with 4 steals. So you couldn’t point the finger of blame at him.

OG Anunoby could have shot better — 10 pts on 2-9 shooting (2-7 from 3) but he was busy defending Chet Holmgren (16 pts on 5-10 shooting, 0-3 from 3) or Jalen Williams (22 pts on 7-11 shooting, 0-1 from 3) all night.

Free Throw Discrepancy

The only area where you could say the Knicks could do better is not allowing Shai-Gilgeous Alexander that late run, or to go 13-16 from the free throw line in the game. But that’s not their fault, because most of the time he was barely drawing contact — or seemingly no contact from a Knick defender — but still drawing a foul.

Alexander finished with 30 pts on 8-18 shooting plus all those free throws and that really was the difference in this game. The whole league faces that dilemma with Shai-Gilgeous, whom the NBA seems to have anointed Michael Jordan don’t-get-too-close-or-they’ll-call-a-foul status.

It wasn’t just Shai — Oklahoma shot 31-38 from the free throw line in the game; NY shot 13-17.

“They do a fantastic job, starting with Shai, in getting the refs to think a foul has occurred. Their gamesmanship is off the charts — off the charts,” said coach Mike Brown afterwards. “From top to bottom. And Shai is the best at it in the league. And you give their whole team credit, starting with Mark (Daigneault, their head coach) on down because they have a system, and they do a great job exploiting it in their way.”

NY falls to 48-27; Oklahoma improves to 59-16.

1. Close Game After 1 Quarter — Okla 26 NY 23

Jalen Brunson came out looking to take it to the physical Oklahoma defense no matter what Luke Dort or the blitzes did — and he was in high form from the start — scoring 7 pts with 2 assists in the 1st quarter. Mikal Bridges also came out aggressive, and scored 7 pts also.

Miles McBride was back in a Knick uniform since undergoing hernia surgery 2 months ago, and he played well — providing great on-ball defense against Shai and Luc Dort.

Oklahoma had a 26-23 lead after 1 quarter.

2. Close Game at Half — Okla 53 NY 52

Karl-Anthony Towns started the game with free throws after a drive inside, but then aided and abetted the rest of the quarter, not taking another field goal attempt.

And the 2nd quarter was the same thing — 1 field goal attempt. KAT went into the half with 4 pts on 1-1 shooting from the floor. He was ripping down rebounds, but feeding Brunson or Bridges for buckets.

Brunson continued to get anything he wanted for NY.

Jalen Williams killed the Knicks in the 2nd quarter but Jalen Brunson was getting buckets for NY, and Josh Hart was knocking down jumpers and 3’s. Hart hit a 3 at the buzzer to send NY into the break down 53-52.

3. Close Game After 3 Quarters — Okla 84 NY 78

It was more of the same from KAT in the 3rd quarter — lots of rebounds — but only 1 field goal attempt, which he made. It was at about that time that national broadcaster Reggie Miller said that was unacceptable — that KAT had to be more selfish.

KAT Reveals Knicks Used Him as Decoy

KAT was being guarded some of the time by 6’5 All-League Defender Alex Caruso, and did not exploit his size advantage. Afterwards, KAT revealed this was by design: “I would like to utilize my talent and my size. But we decided to do something different.”

McBride Re-Injures or Tweaks Hernia

With 5:07 left in the 3rd and the score 68-63 Oklahoma, Miles McBride dove for a loose ball and seemed to tweak or re-injure the area where he had the hernia surgery 2 months ago. He went to the lockeroom after sitting on the bench a few minutes.

Jalen Williams continued to sting the Knicks in the 3rd quarter, while Shai was getting buckets and lots of free throws, Chet Holmgren was a tough cover, and Isaiah Hartenstein was aiding rebounds and assists.

But Brunson kept the Knicks right there with big buckets including 3’s, and Josh Hart continued to knock down big buckets. Mitchell Robinson took over at center late in the quarter, dunking inside off a Jose Alvarado alley-oop pass, and hitting 1 of 2 free throws after being purposely fouled with 17 seconds left.

4. Close Game with 4:40 Left — Okla 97 NY 95

Alex Caruso started the 4th with a 3, and then Isaiah Hartenstein got a bucket inside and Oklahoma had their biggest lead of the game at 11 pts — 89-78.

The Knick bench must have told KAT to be more aggressive or the NY game-plan all along was to have KAT a decoy early, then switch to him late — because he came back into the game with 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter and attacked the basket relentlessly.

KAT scored 9 pts in the quarter — on one play missing inside twice — and hauling down his own offensive rebound twice — before putting it up and in for a 92-88 game, Oklahoma up, with 7:51 left.

In between KAT’s drives, OG hit a 3, and then Brunson hit a clutch drive to pull NY within 97-95 with 4:47 left in the game.

5. Shai & Okla Take It in Final 4 Minutes

But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit a jumper, then scored on a drive next time down, then hit a 3 next time down for 7 straight points and Oklahoma was up 104-95 with 3:44 left.

A Chet Holmgren floater a minute later, and a Shai free throw a minute after that made it 10 straight pts for Okla and a 107-95 lead with 1:35 left and essentially ballgame.

In between all that — Mitchell Robinson made a bad pass throwing the ball away, Brunson missed a 15-footer, OG missed a 3, Caruso missed a 3 but Okla got an offensive rebound, Bridges missed a 3, and KAT missed a 3.

The Knicks just did not seem to have their normal confidence down the stretch.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401810944

 

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