New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Clippers 123-111: Back on track

The New York Knicks climbed back into the win column, defeating the Los Angeles Clippers 123-111. The team came back to life at the Garden.

New York needed time to jumpstart their offense, and the Clippers’ crafty vets challenged the Knicks’ defense. That helped LA take a halftime lead, but the energy still felt different from New York.

The Knicks’ ball movement was better, partly because the Clippers pressed the ball out of Jalen Brunson’s hand and partly because everyone else stepped up their aggression. New York’s defensive effort picked up from the second quarter on, and the Clippers faded by the end of both halves.

Karl-Anthony Towns improved with each quarter, culminating in a fourth-quarter explosion that set the Knicks on their path to a double-digit victory. But he’s not the only player to snap out of a lull, as the entire rotation made positive contributions.

Let’s breathe a sigh of relief while we go over each contributor.

This marks a season-low in field goal attempts for Jalen Brunson. The Captain played off the ball more often, and it led to an incredibly efficient performance. Brunson’s 26 points on 12 attempts are impressive enough, but he still added playmaking through kickouts on paint touches and swing passes off high doubleteams.

Brunson was still Captain Clutch, even with less touches. He scored five consecutive points, followed by assisting on 10 consecutive points as the Clippers began to double him.

Talk about a turnaround for Karl-Anthony Towns. KAT may have been passive a game ago, but he was aggressive throughout the Clippers game. His constant attacking of the paint started sloppily, but he became unstoppable once he found his rhythm in the second half.

We got to see the best and worst of Karl-Anthony Towns on defense. It came down to how he defended when his assignments set screens.

In the first half, he dropped without offering any help, which led to easy paint touches for ball-handlers. In contrast, during the second half, he hard-hedged to disrupt the ball handler. The entire team’s defense improved as a result.

We got a great response to last game’s listless performance from OG Anunoby. This time, he attacked the rim constantly and only settled for jumpers when he was wide open. The Clippers couldn’t get him out of the paint.

I still think Anunoby’s got another level to reach defensively. He wasn’t bad in this game, but also wasn’t the menace we’ve seen during his peaks.

When the Knicks started slow, Mike Brown called an early timeout. Mikal Bridges quickly responded by diving on a loose ball and making a hockey assist from the floor. It’s a nice encapsulation of his performance tonight.

Bridges gave New York whatever it was lacking in the moment. He’d score when others cooled off, or assist when they were hot. While KAT and Mitch battled for space, Mikal stepped up with nine boards. Plus, his defense was on point as always.

The Knicks took a while to get going, but Deuce McBride’s hot hand kept them close early. He hit all four of his threes in the first half. The Clippers stayed closer to him after that. But while he cooled off as a scorer, he picked up assists in response.

The leading scorer off the bench shouldn’t surprise anyone. Jordan Clarkson came in and provided a needed scoring punch for the second unit. His attack was under control and contributed as a passer and rebounder as well.

My only quibble with Clarkson is defensive discipline. He picked up bad fouls that repeatedly gifted the Clippers free throws.

That’s more like it. The Knicks looked like a shadow of themselves in recent games, and I was worried at the start of this one. But it didn’t take long to realize that they were playing harder, and their ball movement was more fluid than in any of their losses.

I still wish they could get a two-day break before this trip out West begins. But they’ll get a couple of days off before finishing the road trip with a double-header.

Phoenix is next and has the best record of the upcoming opponents. A win there would set the tone nicely to gain momentum in the coming week. We’ll see how it goes and discuss it next time, Knicks’ fam!