These ways aren’t going to work anymore, Orlando. The Knicks have your quantity.
The shorthanded Magic, lacking three of their high scorers — Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Moritz Wagner — leaned on their trademark physicality, a gritty type of play that has saved them aggressive regardless of their depleted roster. Orlando’s protection recurrently holds opponents near or beneath 100 factors, a components that’s helped them scrape collectively wins regardless of a scarcity of offensive firepower.
However that components continues to fall quick towards the Knicks. On Friday evening, New York cruised to a 108-85 victory at Amway Middle, securing a 3-0 season collection lead over their convention foe. The Knicks didn’t want the three-ball to dominate, taking pictures simply 4-of-15 from past the arc. As an alternative, they flipped Orlando’s physicality towards them, incomes 34 journeys to the free-throw line and changing 24 of them.
Additionally they received with out a dominant efficiency from Karl-Anthony Cities, who posted 22 factors and 22 rebounds of their first matchup however was mired in foul hassle on Friday, ending with 16 factors and eight boards.
The Knicks, nonetheless, have confirmed they’ll win in numerous methods. Jalen Brunson delivered a standout efficiency with 26 factors and 9 assists, and Mikal Bridges added 17 factors and two steals on 50% taking pictures from the sector, whereas Josh Hart chipped in 23 factors and 13 rebounds, serving to New York enhance to 21-10 on the season and declare their sixteenth victory of their final 20 video games.
“Yeah, hopefully that helps ratings. Ain’t that why ratings are down — ’cause we shoot too many 3s?” Hart quipped in his postgame interview. “That’s the special thing about this team: we can win games even when we don’t shoot the ball well.”
The Magic had their moments, fueled by a scorching begin from Jalen Suggs, who scored 27 factors on 10-of-20 taking pictures. However foul hassle restricted Suggs to simply 26 minutes, and no different Magic participant scored greater than 14 factors. Orlando led 63-62 with 6:23 left within the third quarter earlier than Suggs picked up his fourth foul. The Knicks seized the chance, closing the quarter on a 14-5 run after which burying the Magic with a 32-17 fourth-quarter surge.
“Obviously he’s a terrific defender, but he’s very aggressive,” Hart stated of Suggs. “And sometimes we use that aggression against him to get him in foul trouble. We were able to do that.”
The Knicks’ bench offered important assist, contributing 18 factors. Landry Shamet scored seven, Miles McBride added 5, and Valuable Achiuwa posted six factors and 6 rebounds whereas logging prolonged minutes in Cities’ absence.
The win marks six straight for the Knicks, who’ve crushed the Minnesota Timberwolves, Toronto Raptors, San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans and now, the Magic twice throughout this run.
They now flip their focus to the second leg of a back-to-back towards the NBA’s worst workforce, the Washington Wizards. The Knicks will face the Wizards twice in a row earlier than returning to Madison Sq. Backyard to host the 7-22 Utah Jazz.
This stretch presents a golden alternative for New York to increase their streak to 9 video games earlier than touring to Oklahoma Metropolis for a showdown with the league-leading Thunder on Jan. 3.
However the Knicks aren’t wanting that far forward. They’re taking issues one step at a time.
Their newest step? A commanding blowout over the Magic, cementing their standing as one of many East’s hottest groups.
