Thunder 126, Knicks 101: “It’s hard to ignore that our key guys look tired af.”

Anonther lousy shooting night for a tired Knicks squad while SGA drops 39 and back-up Isaiah Joe scores 31.

Last Friday, the Oklahoma City Thunder (31-6) had to fight back to win against the New York Knicks (25-14). Tonight at Madison Square Garden, they barely broke a sweat to win 126-101. Yet again, the Knicks made just four three-pointers (of 32 attempts!). played flimsy defense, and scored just 17 points in a quarter. After their worst loss of the season, we presume that Leon Rose will be working the phones, calling GMs into the wee hours tonight because, to quote JalenBrunsavior, “It’s hard to ignore that our key guys look tired af.”

At the start, nerves appeared to be a factor. The Knicks missed their first six shots, the Thunder bricked nine of their first ten, and the teams combined to hit 2-of-7 from downtown. Through the first quarter, the Knicks committed five turnovers and neither team built a lead of substance until late in the frame. Around then, the visitors began to do what the Knicks couldn’t—namely, put the ball in the net. With New York shooting 32% from the field and 17% from deep and playing positively textbook matador defense, the Tornadoes mounted a 13-2 run to close the quarter ahead, 31-17.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He shakes, bakes, slices, and dices, and made it look effortless en route to 19 first-half points. He finished with 39 points tonight.

After sitting out five games with a sore hamstring, Miles “Deuce” McBride returned to the court late in the first frame. He was on the floor to start the second quarter alongside Cameron Payne, Landry Shamet, OG Anunoby, and Precious Achiuwa. They were largely ineffective. The Thunder were not. They would ultimately hit 14-of-27 from deep tonight.

When the Knicks lost in OKC last Friday, dark-horse Aaron Wiggins galloped off the bench to lead a remarkable comeback. Tonight, yet another unlikely hero stepped into the spotlight as Isaiah Joe (8.1 PPG this season) scored 23 in 14 first-half minutes and sank 6-of-7 three-pointers. It’s too bad the Knicks don’t have another regular season game against the Thunder on the schedule: Frank, their ball boy, is still awaiting his chance to check in and drop 30 on New York.

Genius Joe and the Bolts commenced a premature burial of the ‘Bockers, shoveling a deficit of 22 points upon their collective heads. Befuddled by his team’s buffoonery, head coach Tom Thibodeau deployed Karl-Anthony Towns yet again and called back Precious Achiuwa at the nine-minute mark. It seemed like the right idea. Yet, even as the entire starting squad returned to the fray, their hole reached a depth of 28 points. The Thunder have the league’s best defensive rating and after watching them tonight, I cannot dispute this fact.

While the Tornadoes hit almost everything (60% from the field, 10-of-15 from deep), the Knicks missed endlessly (14-of-44 FG, 2-of-15 3P%) and entered halftime on the wrong side of 70-43. New York’s worst offenders? Mikal Bridges missed all seven of his shots, including six from deep, for a halftime goose egg. OG Anunoby missed his four attempts for equal inefficiency.

But to truly stink requires a team effort, and the Knickerbockers stood united in this stanky effort, losing the glass by 10, the points-in-the-paint by eight, assists by seven, and bench points by 20. Perhaps the only positive takeaway was that the home team made all 13 of their free-throw attempts. Oh, this guy is forever fly:

Of all the things the Knicks might have done at halftime, one thing that they neglected to do was unlock the mystery of their first-half woes. The Thunder continued to roll well into the third quarter. New York did start to produce in the paint—even outscoring their opponents in the lane—and this improvement was spearheaded by an exceedingly sweaty Karl-Anthony Towns. God bless him, Karl finished with a 23-point, 10-board double-double.

Mikal whiffed twice more before sensibly hanging up his guns to protect his perfect zero. Through three quarters, Bridges, Josh Hart (16 points, 13 rebounds), and Deuce (seven points, 0-of-4 3P) were all a -23 plus-minus. By game’s end, Jalen Brunson scored 27 points tonight and shot a perfect 13 from the charity stripe, but he was -23. Achiuwa was -16 (in six minutes!). OG would finish -6, but scored four points and missed all five triple attempts. Even KAT was -10. See? It was truly a team effort.

Rookie center Ariel Hukporti jogged past Jericho Sims to clock in for the last minute of the third quarter. Surely like the Incredible Huk—or even fellow rookie Tyler Kolek—could have got some burn earlier, especially when the younger, energetic Cyclones were zipping past our cement-shoed heroes, no?

New York was down 102-74 to start the fourth. More stink followed. The MSG faithful had one cheerworthy moment when Hukporti chased down and blocked a Cason Wallace fastbreak layup attempt; and then again when he hit a 10-foot jumper. See previous paragraph. . . . With garbage time starting early, and six minutes on the clock, Thibs left in Cameron Payne rather than give Kolek a chance to see some NBA action. We scratch our heads. Oh, sure, Junior John Stockton got his number called with two minutes left, but c’mon coach.

Up Next

The Knicks host the Bucks in a Sunday matinee. Rest up, Knickerbockers.

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