Mikal Bridges, Karl-Anthony Towns combine for 42 points as Knicks dominate Pacers

Karl-Anthony Towns: Home. -via Twitter @KarlTowns / October 25, 2024

Almost none of those possessions were pick-and-pops, where the play ends with a screener getting a jump shot. (When New York did get pick-and-pops, they generally didn’t work well. Brunson and Randle shared 32 such plays, averaging just 0.56 points per possession — dead last in the NBA among duos who had at least 30 such possessions, per Second Spectrum.) Overall, the Knicks ranked 29th in points scored by screeners in pick-and-pop scenarios in 2023-24. That’s where Towns should make a world of difference for Brunson and the Knicks’ offense. -via ESPN / October 25, 2024

Towns ranked second in the league last season in points from pick-and-pop situations, and the 28-year-old big man has connected on at least 100 triples in a season seven times. In fact, there are already indications that Towns has helped limit the opponent’s ability to crowd Brunson. Brunson, who sank his first six shot attempts during the Knicks’ humbling opening-night defeat in Boston, saw an average of just 1.16 contesting defenders in the paint during the preseason — down from the average of 1.43 contesting defenders he saw last season when going for layups and floaters. The Second Spectrum data is a welcome sign for New York, given that the All-Star duo hasn’t had a true opportunity to jell yet, with the trade having happened just weeks ago. -via ESPN / October 25, 2024

“Mikal don’t care about anything else, we don’t care about all that background noise about Mikal, his shot, all that other [stuff]. We don’t care about it,” Josh Hart said of his former Villanova teammate. “He puts the work in every day. He’s going to be good. “The talk around it is stupid and there is stupidity to it because at the end of the day he’s been almost a 40 percent 3-point shooter. The talk around it is stupid and we’re not really going to entertain it. -via New York Post / October 23, 2024

Bridges also was the Knicks’ primary defender against Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum, who buried 8 of 11 from 3-point range and scored 37 points to front Boston’s NBA record-tying 29 treys for the game. “I definitely could have done better. I think my performance at the defensive end wasn’t that [good] for me personally, as well as our team,” said Bridges, who finished a team-worst minus-33 in 35 minutes. “Me personally, I think I just could have been better, especially [against] a guy getting it and having that rhythm from the three, just getting up a little bit more [on Tatum]. “He had a nice move on me in the paint, as well. Just gotta be better. I mean, Game 1, just gotta learn from it, and just get better from it.” -via New York Post / October 23, 2024

Kristian Winfield: Mikal Bridges says he’s been trying to fix his jump shot for 7 years trying to get his form back to where it was at Villanova: “When I came out of college, I tweaked it a little bit. And then my 2nd year in the league, I had the hitch, and tried to build back from that.” -via x.com / October 19, 2024