The Knicks brought in more depth at the trade deadline, but the burden doesn’t seem to have lifted from Jalen Brunson‘s shoulders, Stefan Bondy writes for the New York Post.
A cold spell for the recently-acquired Jose Alvarado has led to a downturn in minutes for the pesky point guard, which in turn has been partially responsible for Brunson averaging the most minutes per game (37.8) in the league over the last five games coming into Wednesday’s matchup with the Jazz.
In that time, Brunson has struggled to find his rhythm offensively, shooting under 43% from the field in three of the five games, including back-to-back five field goal outings.
Head coach Mike Brown has turned to his bench depth in search of answers, trying Jordan Clarkson and Tyler Kolek out at various times over the last couple games.
“My career is about growth and getting better,” Kolek said. “So I need to learn from those experiences and learn from every one — good or bad. Those were good experiences. But me, personally, I’ve had some bad experiences on the floor. From my play. So learn from both of those things and just continue to grow, continue to get better.”
We have more from the Knicks:
- Mikal Bridges says his offensive struggles aren’t about a lack of confidence, Bondy writes. “I think it’s just the game of basketball,” Bridges said. “Sometimes you try to get open and sometimes it doesn’t find me. Just try to find ways to stay aggressive. That’s it.” Bridges has been averaging just 11.4 points per game coming into Wednesday night while hitting 34.1% of his threes, down from his average of 15.2 points on 38.0% from deep. “I’m just trying to do whatever it takes to win, trying to find opportunities, try to do all the right things and be aggressive.” the wing said.
- James L. Edwards III of The Athletic takes a look at potential playoff seeding for the Knicks, and which spot would likely be the most beneficial to the team. While the number one seed isn’t mathematically out of reach, it seems incredibly unlikely that New York will catch up to Detroit, making the two, three, or four seed the likely outcome. While any seed lower than two would likely feel like something of a disappoint, Edwards makes the case that the four seed could actually be the best outcome, as they would likely face the Raptors in the first round, a team they have had little trouble with this season.
- The Knicks’ defense is much improved since the All-Star break, but lately the offense has fallen into troubling disfunction, Edwards writes. Over the last 26 games, the team’s offense has slipped from fourth to tenth, punctuated by mountains of turnovers and missed shots. The Knicks put up a lot of threes, which are a notably high-variance shot, and have been burned several times of late by their inability to get hot from deep. Karl-Anthony Towns says the right ingredients for success are all still there. “The last two games, we’ve done a great job of giving ourselves chances to win games, but we just haven’t shot well,” he said on Wednesday. “Then we weirdly shoot well at points in the game to give ourselves a chance. It’s just sometimes how the game goes. We just have to stay confident.“
42–25 ……. 15gms to go.