This issue has come up at times for the Knicks this season. Mikal Bridges felt it again Friday.
In the Knicks' 126-101 loss to the Thunder, 3-pointers (they made just four) and all other types of shots (they shot just 38.5 percent from the field) missed; It snowballed and I was forced into a defensive position. At the other end it is lost.
MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the team with 39 points. Eight days after Aaron Wiggins scored 19 points off the bench against Oklahoma City, backup Isaiah Joe scored 31 points and sank 3-pointers, making eight of them. They are all in the garden.
With the Knicks losing for the fourth time in their last five games, all of their starters removed, and fans starting leaving well before the final horn, this is the latest worrying situation for them as a defensive unit. It became.
The Knicks have allowed 126 points or more six times this season, and three of those times have come in the last 15 days.
After being a top-10 unit at the end of last year, they are officially a mid-major defense — rated 15th in defense as of Saturday.
And when the Knicks are at their worst, their visible defensive struggles are a byproduct of their lack of shots falling.
“It should be the other way around,” Bridges said. “If you miss a shot, you have to play the game on the other side.”
The Knicks have fallen into an offensive rut in recent weeks. Their 3-point numbers have slumped, finishing Friday with just four shots from beyond the arc for the second time since Dec. 27.
Bridges has gone 4-of-27 from the field over the past two games, dominated by Gilgeous-Alexander and defended by Bridges.
OG Anunoby missed every shot in the first half on Friday.
Jalen Brunson has only made multiple threes in a game once since Dec. 21.
If those issues boiled over by Friday, they boiled over against the Thunder when the Knicks failed to generate stops. Joe had already scored 12 points off the bench when Cameron Payne missed a three, the Thunder put the ball back in the court, Joe cut the backdoor, Isaiah Hartenstein threaded the pass and made an and-one. was.
Then, after Anunoby missed a three from the top of the key on the Knicks' next possession, Joe added another layup.
“It's going to take a second, third and fourth effort, and it's going to take everyone coming together” to protect the Thunder, head coach Tom Thibodeau said. Brunson said it's hard to stop a player like Joe when he's in a rhythm and keeps making open attempts.
And defensive possessions showed signs of stagnation for an offense tasked with navigating matchups against the NBA's best defense, as the Knicks made just two threes and shot 31.8 percent from the field in the first 24 minutes. It was starting to seep in.
“Sometimes teams are unbelievable in terms of shooting the ball and beating everything, like the Celtics game in the first game of the year,” Josh Hart said. “And sometimes you can just accept that and live with it. But we can't go out there and live without executing and without having intensity.”
Even if they miss shots, Bridges said the Knicks still need to “hold each other accountable” and communicate on defense.
Empty possessions cannot ruin the performance of the other side.
When it appears over and over again, it becomes a “theme,” as Bridges described it.
“So we have a lot of potential,” Brunson said of the Knicks' defense. “We have to keep building to get there.”
Still, in the aftermath of Friday's upset, Knicks players realized this could just be a five-game flop.
“Not all 82 cars are going to be perfect,” Karl-Anthony Towns said.
The Knicks look much different now than they did when they ended the new year with nine straight wins.
It could look completely different in a month.
And before the playoffs arrive, this version of the Knicks, where the offense struggles and the defense suffers, could become a reality again.
But Bridges said the Knicks need to avoid that. They can't waste energy on missed shots.
We can't be a team that only climbs toward its potential when shots are falling.
They can't be a team starting Friday, at the most basic level.
