The New York Knicks beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 100-95 in their preseason game at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. Here are some thoughts and observations following the victory.
Beating the switch
Often times last season, the Knicks’ offense would turn to mush when the opposing team put a center on Josh Hart and a more athletic forward or guard on Karl-Anthony Towns. New York would look confused. The ball would pound the hardwood like a hammer pounds a nail. Nothing rarely came easy for the Knicks’ offense when good defenses would deploy this tactic.
On Thursday night, though, with a new head coach in the fold and a change in the style of play progressing, New York’s offense appeared to have an answer for such tactic. In the third quarter, Minnesota briefly switched Julius Randle onto Towns and Rudy Gobert onto OG Anunoby. And with about five minutes left in the third quarter, the Knicks punished them with one of their better possessions of the night.
The Knicks whipped the ball around the perimeter before Brunson used a Towns screen as a decoy to freeze Gobert and launch a pass to Anunoby that he’s forced to catch in stride and blow past the heavy-footed center for a bucket. Gobert wouldn’t stay on Anunoby long after that.
You can see coach Mike Brown clapping in the background. His team got the ball moving, read the situation and reacted accordingly. There was no wasted motion. This is what the coach has been preaching all offseason as it pertains to the read-and-react offense he’s trying to implement.
“I’m glad you brought that up because that’s not a play call, that’s a read,” Brown said. “If the defense is playing a certain way, we’re doing our stuff, but it’s a read … BOOM … go right back to him, drive and finish at the rim. We’re getting there. It may take a while. It’s not easy, but the guys have been fantastic and trying to learn and grow.”
Of course, having Anunoby as the one being guarded by a center as opposed to Hart puts New York in the driver’s seat. Gobert has to respect the shooting threat of Anunoby and play higher up as opposed to guarding Hart and being able to sag off a bit more.
Regardless, the lesson here is that the Knicks are morphing as an offense and in the early stages of understanding the importance of keeping the ball moving.
Do we need to worry about the 3-point shooting?
The Knicks came into the game against the Timberwolves having only knocked down 26.5 percent of their 3s through two preseason games. Against Minnesota, the team only converted on 26.3 percent.
Do I think New York, which converted on an eighth-ranked 36.9 percent of its 3s last year, will shoot as poorly as they have in the preseason once the regular season starts? I don’t. The Knicks are shooting at an astronomically low clip right now. There’s no way that holds. Also, it’s the preseason. There’s no need to get carried away.
However, I do wonder if this team is capable of being an efficient 3-point shooting team on high volume — and I pondered that before the preseason started. Yes, the Knicks were one of the most accurate deep-shooting teams in the NBA last season, but they also ranked 27th in attempts. I do think it’s fair to question if this particular group, which isn’t filled with many players who have taken high-volume 3s in their career, would benefit from such an uptick in attempts. Of course, it’s worth finding out and, trust me, Brown will find out. Combine a group of players who already don’t shoot a ton of 3s with a fast-paced, more-demanding offense, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that results in underwhelming shooting numbers.
With that, New York has done a tremendous job of getting up 3s in preseason — it had 55 attempts against the Timberwolves and averaged 44 in two games against Philadelphia — but so far the juice hasn’t been worth the squeeze. The Knicks generated open corner 3s early in the first half against Minnesota, and that’s what is most important at this stage in the season. Yet, it couldn’t get the ball to go through the hoop.
Again, I’m not concerned. It’s just something worth monitoring.
Lastly, Towns has only taken five 3s in 60 minutes of preseason action. He’s the team’s best 3-point shooter and hasn’t really found a good balance yet. Not concerned, just something I’m keeping my eye on.
Brown, players say defense is ahead of the offense
It hasn’t been perfect, but I’ve been impressed with New York’s defense in spurts this preseason. Most notably the gap defense or, as Brown and the team call it, “shifting.”
Here’s an example:
The closest help defender, which in this case is Miles McBride, steps over and makes Anthony Edwards feel his presence as he attacks the driving lane. Bridges has time to recover because of it. It’s textbook defense but we didn’t always see this with the Knicks last season. Some players, like Anunoby, would excel at this and do it often, but other times it felt like most help defenders would stay home (stay attached their man).
For it to work, rotations have to be crisp and guys have to be able to recover quickly to their man. There is risk involved, of course, as there is with all defenses at this level. However, it’s a good way to keep everyone engaged and cause a little chaos in the process. At the very least, the offensive player has to think a little bit more about what they’re doing.