Worrying trend has Knicks starters at a huge disadvantage vs. Celtics
The number jumps off the page — in the worst of ways.It represents a big outlier among the others.The eye test makes it obvious while watching as well.The Knicks starters are getting crushed.When all five starters — Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns — are on the court together, they’ve been outscored by 29 points through the first three games of their second-round series against the Celtics.
No other five-man group that has played together in the three games is worse than minus-7.“I think a big part of that is how we’re starting games and starting the second half,” Hart said on Sunday.“We haven’t done a good job imposing our will into the game from the jump.
That’s something that we struggled with in Detroit also, coming out of the half.There were times we had a 10-, 12-point lead and then we surrendered it in the first three, four minutes of the half.
That unit, we have to come out with more sense of urgency, more desperation, more competitiveness and let everything else fall into place.”When those five are on the court together, which they have been for a combined 68 minutes in the series, they are shooting a brutal 37.0 percent from the field and 23.8 percent from 3-point range.They also have more turnovers (22) than assists (21).Their best lineup, conversely, has been when Mitchell Robinson replaces Towns.
In the 14 total minutes Brunson, Bridges, Anunoby, Hart and Robinson have been on the floor together in the series, they’ve outscored the Celtics by a combined nine points.That means it would make sense for Thibodeau to play Robinson with the starting unit at the beginning of quarters.It would dissuade the Celtics from hacking him to send him to the line, since it would put the Knicks in the bonus extremely quickly in the quarter.
Sports+ subscribers: Sign up for Inside the Knicks to get daily newsletter coverage and join Expert Take for insider texts about the series.And it would give the K...