When things are going the way they’ve been going for the Knicks, can you ever definitively say you’re confident in them to win, regardless of opponent?
Yes, on paper, it was more likely the Knicks (26-18)
would embarrass the Nets (12-30) by biblical margins than it was for them to manage to lose, especially when fully healthy. But after whatever the hell happened on MLK Day (and in Sacramento), the offense’s recent short-circuiting, and the fact that Cam Thomas has a penchant for scoring in bunches against the Knicks, I was worried.
Maybe I should’t have been. Some things transcend slumps and horrifically bad vibes.
When one team owns another the way the Knicks do to the Nets, they’ll win no matter what. This effect was reversed a few years ago, as the Nets, in the midst of their ten-game winning streak against the Knicks, came back from a 21-point halftime deficit despite missing Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Ben Simmons. Sometimes, you just own a team.
Nic Claxton would know, that’s 13 straight.
Every so often, we get a game that makes you dig deep into the Statmuse files. Let’s see what we can get from this historic, 54-point drubbing:
- It’s the largest margin of victory in franchise history. For a team that’s now played 6,231 games since 1946, that’s a lot. It breaks a three-way tie of games in 1968, 1972, and 1994, all 48-point wins.
- The Knicks led by 59 in the final minute before the Nets scored five to end the game. That 59-point lead is probably the largest in franchise history, but we only have concrete data in the last 30-ish years. Looking at the box scores of the pre-play-by-play era games, I don’t think an anyone got to 60.
- It’s the second-largest margin of victory by an NBA team this season. The Hornets destroyed the Jazz, 150-95, 11 days ago. The Knicks would’ve had this one, but Danny Wolf had to statpad with 10 seconds left. Alas!
- The Knicks last allowed 66 points or fewer on April 13, 2012, when they smacked the Wizards 103-65. Wizards’ leading scorer? Jordan Crawford (who went 6-for-20 from the field).
- The Nets are the first NBA team to score fewer than 70 points since… them last season (67). Last one to score less than that was the Mavericks on November 18, 2016, losing a disgusting 80-64 game to Memphis. Who remembers the 79-73 a few years ago?
- The Nets last scored this few points on March 12, 2005. In case you forgot, team’s score more in like four minutes now than they did in whole quarters 20 years ago.
- For reference, with 66 points, the Knicks have had 21 halves this season where they’ve put up 66 points. They’ve also allowed 10, with six coming since Christmas (yikes)
- The Knicks have won 13 straight games against the Nets. It’s the longest streak in the rivalry’s history and is quickly rivaling the streak the Knicks had against the Pistons from 2020-24 of 16 straight.
120-66 is such a ridiculous score. It’s happened once before in NBA history, but it’s a score you’re more likely to see in non-conference college basketball. In November 2024, UMass Lowell beat NAIA Fisher College, 121-66. That’s a bunch of Division I athletes destroying a non-NCAA school. This just shouldn’t happen in the NBA with 15 of the best 450 players in the world on each bench.
There’s not much to say about the game itself. The only time the Nets looked anything other than total dog poo was when Egor Demin nailed two threes early. From what I’ve seen so far, the No. 8 overall pick has by far the best chance of becoming a solid NBA starter of the five first-round picks the Nets had this year. He’s shown some advanced playmaking, and the BYU product is a sneaky good shooter.
What I really liked about how the Knicks started this game was the way they involved Karl-Anthony Towns early. The struggling big man finished with just 14 points in 20 minutes and still had some bewildering offensive fouls, but in a situation where he needed to come out and perform, he got off to a good start to quickly put the team up by double digits.
Jalen Brunson only had 20-5-4 in a team-high 31 minutes and went 1-for-8 from three, yet we won by 54, so who cares? It was a quiet game for OG Anunoby and a meh game from Mikal Bridges, but again, who cares? It was the Landry Shamet show, baby!
The Knicks shot 50% from three, a welcome sign after how bad they’ve been from deep this month. They also held the Nets to 27.5%, and it wasn’t wide-open bricks; it was forcing a bad team into bad shots. The Nets also shot 29.1% from the field, the lowest by an NBA team in two years. It was also the worst for the Nets since December 26, 2019, when they shot 26.9%… against the Knicks!
The increased defensive intensity was evident all night. I don’t have a clip show to show you, but the effort was there from the start. Kudos to the captain, who led by example and was visibly defending hard from the opening tip. Brunson’s not the worst defender when he’s engaged like this, it’s just hard when you’re also the only guy on the team that can dribble.
After the Mavs’ drubbing, I called back to the last time the Knicks got pulverized by the Mavericks at MSG while in the doldrums. After that game, Tom Thibodeau permanently benched Evan Fournier (although it was trending that way for a while), Derrick Rose, and Cam Reddish. History did repeat itself for Mike Brown, who banished Jordan Clarkson to the bench after his recent rough performance.
I don’t think Clarkson will be permanently glued to the bench, as his ability to create for himself is valuable, and when he’s hot, he’s hot. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was shipped out at the trade deadline if the Knicks are more active than just finding a taker for Guerschon Yabusele.
What’s important for the Knicks is that they, for at least one night, have quieted the noise behind a record-breaking effort. Make no mistake, beating the snot out of a tanking team means nothing for the very real problems they’ve had lately, but sometimes all it takes is one win to snap a team out of a funk. They’ve now played three straight elite halves of defense and, for the first time in months, will have consecutive days off at home before they next play the Sixers on Saturday.
Win that one, and I think brighter days are ahead.
