Poor shooting and poor defense sank the Knicks in a 121-106 loss to the lowly Jazz on Saturday night in Utah.
New York fell to 9-7 on the season with a frustrating performance. Utah improved to 4-12.
Here are some insights…
– The modern NBA has become a game that can be defined by a simple phrase: 3-and-D. Saturday was an example of what happens when one team can get it done and the other can’t.
New York was away from the deep connection on just 17 of 51 attempts (33.3 percent). Jalen Brunson (2 for 9), Karl-Anthony Towns (1-for-9) a Mikal Bridges (1 in 7) everyone has bad nights. Brunson — 23 points on 8-for-19 shooting with eight assists in 37 minutes — didn’t add his first three of the night until 1:25 remained in the third after an 0-for-6 start. Towns — 16 points on 6-for-19 shooting with 16 rebounds and five assists — made it his lone three with 1:10 left in the fourth.
And they couldn’t stop Utah: 44-for-87 from the floor (50.6 percent) and 19-for-34 (55.9 percent) from three, including a 6-for-8 night from deep Colin Sexton who had 25 points.
Despite all that, New York showed some heart, and on another night, the Jazz would have been sweating. The Knicks erased a 13-point first-quarter deficit to enter the second frame tied, falling behind again when the Jazz pushed the lead to 15 at halftime and fell by 19 before responding with a 17-0 run. However, they allowed the home team to answer once more to put the game on ice.
Josh Hart was a team worse minus 37 in 41 minutes. Towns was minus-34 in 39 minutes and Brunson was minus-15 in 37 minutes.
– Just like the first and second quarters, the Knicks started the third quarter cold, going 3-for-9 from the floor and allowing the Jazz to go 5-for-11 and Sexton’s corner 3 with 6:48 left. the quarter had Tom Thibodeau call timeout with his side down 77-58.
Whatever the head coach said worked: 7-0 by the Knicks, with five OG Anunoby to give him 19 to that point, the Jazz forced a timeout with the deficit down to a dozen with half a third to play. (Anunoby finished with 27 points on 10-for-19 shooting (7-for-12 from deep) with three rebounds, three steals and two blocks. He was a respectable minus-7 in 36 minutes and the Knicks’ only bright spot. )
After the timeout expired, the Knicks got a steal, and Cam Payne three, big stop with Jericho Sims under the basket before adding a putback slam and Anunoby steal and an uncontested dunk forced another Utah timeout with a five-point lead.
From that break, a defensive stop led to an Anunoby 3 — to give him 12 in the quarter — and cap a 17-0 run — all with Towns off the court — to cut the lead to 77-75.
New York had a chance to tie the game, but missed its next five from the floor, allowing Utah to go on a 7-0 run to push the deficit back to nine.
Towns – went scoreless through the third (0-for-4 from the floor) and trailed New York by 19 with 6:19 left in the third and didn’t come back until the fourth. The Knicks won those minutes 20-10, but entered the fourth down 87-78.
– After Hart’s layup to open the fourth, New York went on to miss four more jumpers — including Towns’ 3-pointer. And Thibs called another timeout five minutes after Utah connected on the third lane-oop of the quarter, his team opening the quarter 3 for 9 from the floor. And again a dozen in a row.
A timeout didn’t solve the trick, as Brunson’s turnover was met by Sexton’s three and Brunson missed a three, they answered Johnny Juzang three. The game never swung back in the Knicks’ favor.
– The Knicks started the first frame 2-10 from the floor and with a pace that suited Utah, the lead was 13 before New York finally woke up and connected on the next 7 of 9 attempts to keep the game from getting away. And a late Bridges corner made it three briefly before the Jazz tied the score at 28 after 12 minutes.
Bridges finished the quarter with seven points, but on 3-for-9 shooting (1-for-5 from deep). Towns missed all three of his attempts (one was blocked. He didn’t make another bucket the rest of the game and scored seven points in 33 minutes.
– The Knicks went back into the cold as they started the second game 2-for-7 from the floor to fall behind by seven. Towns snapped his cold streak by going 3-of-4 from the floor in the first five minutes of the quarter for eight points to cut the deficit to six. But outside of center, the rest of the team was 2-for-9 after Anunoby knocked down his fourth 3-pointer of the half.
Thibodeau called for a timeout when Utah pushed the lead to 12 with four minutes to play in the quarter. Worse than the Knicks’ shooting was their defense: The Jazz opened 9-for-13 in the second frame and were 21-for-40 from the floor and 8-for-16 from three in the game to that point.
A Brunson stepback gave him nine at the half to cut the lead to eight with 1:25 to play, but Utah took advantage of the Knicks missing three jumpers for three more trips (two by Brunson) and Keyonte GeorgeA running jumper just beat the buzzer to put New York in the hole 66-51.
– Towns had a double-double in the first half (10 points on 4-10 shooting with 10 rebounds), but was minus-26 in 21 minutes. Brunson (also 4-for-10 from the floor) was minus-18 in 16 minutes. And Hart, despite adding eight points, three rebounds and three assists in the first half, was also a minus-26.
In the first half, New York shot 20 for 52 (38.5 percent) from the field and 7 for 26 (26.9 percent) from three.
Game MVP: Lauri Markkanen
Utah’s MVP led the Jazz with 19 points in 16 first-half minutes and finished with 34 on the night on 11-for-15 shooting (5-for-8 from three) with nine rebounds and was plus-30 in 33 minutes. Sexton was also huge with his plus-32 in 38 minutes.
Highlighting
What will happen next
The Knicks look to bounce back in the Mile High City when they face the Nuggets in Monday night’s 9 p.m. tip-off.