That is what it seems to be like when the Large Bodega is open for enterprise.
With Jalen Brunson sidelined by a Grade 1 ankle sprain suffered late in Wednesday’s loss to the Magic, all eyes shifted to Karl-Anthony Cities — the underused however wildly gifted scoring huge who’d been quiet to start out 12 months 1 underneath Mike Brown.
Quiet no extra.
The Knicks lastly unlocked their All-Star heart, they usually did it from the opening tip of Friday’s 140-132 win over the Miami Warmth. Cities detonated for 31 first-half factors and completed with 38 factors, 11 rebounds and 4 assists on 14-of-26 taking pictures and 6-of-14 from three. Eighteen of these factors got here in a blistering first quarter.
He went 6-of-10 from deep within the first half, tying for the second-most threes in any half this season. And with 11-of-16 taking pictures throughout these opening two quarters, Cities grew to become essentially the most environment friendly participant to attain greater than 26 factors in any half this yr.
He grew to become the sixth participant to hit 30 in a half this season and tied Stephen Curry for the fourth-most factors in a half, trailing solely Nikola Jokic (33), Jamal Murray (32) and Luka Doncic (32).
Then Landry Shamet joined him.
When OG Anunoby headed to the locker room within the first quarter and was later dominated out with a hamstring pressure, Brown turned to Shamet — his go-to plug-in starter every time Mitchell Robinson sits.
Shamet had six factors at halftime. He completed with 36 on 12-of-19 taking pictures and 6-of-12 from three.
“That’s why this is a process,” Brown stated earlier than tipoff. “It’s next-man-up mentality. If someone’s out, the next guy steps in and doesn’t have to do anything extraordinary — just do your job. Same goes for me. Plug the next guy in and make sure he’s comfortable with what he’s supposed to do.”
The explosion marked Cities’ second 30-point half since arriving in New York, tying Julius Randle, Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford for third-most in Knicks historical past.
Fairly an evening for fairly an enormous man.
Which raises the plain query: Why did it take Brunson’s harm to unlock Cities within the first place?
The ground-spacing huge entered Friday on tempo for one of many least environment friendly seasons of his profession — simply 20.2 factors on 42.9% from the sector and 32.7% from three via 11 video games. And whereas Miami didn’t have Bam Adebayo this time round — Cities had solely 15 factors on 6-of-14 taking pictures of their first matchup — this wasn’t nearly who wasn’t on the ground.
The attention take a look at stated one thing else: the Knicks ran offense for Cities in methods they merely hadn’t all season. They hunted his matchups. They trusted him early. He rewarded that belief with fast choices and aggressive shot-making.
The Knicks have now received six of their final seven and moved to 1-1 within the NBA Cup following their opening loss to Chicago.
“Obviously every time we step on the floor we want to try to win. The In-Season tournament is fun because it’s a little bit more oomph behind it for everybody else. The importance of it for everybody else makes it important for you. It’s a game that guys circle, a tournament that guys want to win, especially if you’re competitive. So for us knowing this is an in-season tournament game, we want to try to get it done,” Brown stated forward of tipoff. “I just want to caution everybody that because it’s an in-season tournament game and not a regular season game it doesn’t mean we’re going to ‘try harder to win tonight.’ I mean, every game is important for us during this time of the year in terms of our growth first because this is a long season. But just as importantly, we want to position ourselves well for down the stretch.”
The Knicks will see Miami once more on Monday — this time in South Florida — to open a three-game street journey earlier than returning house Tuesday for a gathering with the Nets at Barclays Heart.
