Jalen Brunson has overwhelmed his defender.
It’s early in Sunday’s “rivalry” matchup between the Knicks and Nets, and New York is pushing off a Brooklyn miss.
Brunson shifts Terance Mann with fast in-and-out crossover, will get each ft within the paint, and attracts two defenders. He has a clear have a look at a floater — the type he’s made in his sleep for many of his profession.
However Brunson doesn’t shoot it. He doesn’t drive contact to get to the road, both.
As an alternative, he does precisely what new head coach Mike Brown has preached since his first press convention in Tarrytown again in September: He touches the paint, then kicks.
One go turns into two — Brunson to Karl-Anthony Cities, who swings it to Mikal Bridges within the nook. Bridges drills the three. Brunson doesn’t get the help. Cities doesn’t take the shot. However the sequence units the tone: fast choices, selfless play, and a shot that unlocks the move of the offense.
That three places 5 factors on the board. The Knicks go on to drop 40 within the opening quarter — a quantity that’s turning into all too acquainted in orange and blue — as a part of a 134–98 blowout of the Nets at Madison Sq. Backyard.
“We’re talented. No matter what we do on the floor, we’re going to have the ability to score,” Brown mentioned after the sport. “But I do think we can be better. And that’s what we should all be striving for is to be better. There’s still a lot of room for us to grow.”
No workforce has extra 40-point quarters than the New York Knicks.
It’s probably the most simple — and maybe most convincing — signal that Brown’s offense is headed in the fitting route.
The superior stats again it up: the Knicks rank second in offensive ranking, second in threes made, top-10 in assists, and bottom-three in turnovers.
However at its core, the only metric tells the story greatest: No workforce is erupting for large quarters as usually because the Knicks, who scored 83 factors within the second half towards the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday earlier than blowing the Nets out of the water with a 40-point first quarter at house on Sunday.
Brown sees the offensive outbursts as encouraging.
“It is, but we’re still learning. I truly believe we can still play better, we can still mix it up,” he mentioned after the Knicks superior to a 6-0 house document with Sunday’s 134-98 blowout of the Nets.
“What now we have to get cautious of isn’t settling. We’re transferring a number of our bodies round, and we wish to maintain transferring our bodies round and make it onerous on the protection.
“And if we do, and it becomes just second nature to us, then we’ll have a chance to be a pretty good offensive team.”
The Knicks now lead the NBA with six 40-point quarters, three of which have come of their final two video games.
As of Monday afternoon, solely 5 different groups — Cleveland, Miami, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Memphis — had 4 40-point quarters this season. Portland and Milwaukee have three. The opposite 22 groups? Two or fewer.
“It has to mean that we’re shooting at a good percentage, and we’re getting some good looks,” mentioned Cities. “Guys are getting stops, getting layups. I feel if I looked back at those 40-point quarters, I think about 10 of them are translated from our defense. So that’s about us finding ways to get stops and running.”
It’s much more spectacular contemplating Brown utterly overhauled the offense throughout coaching camp.
The Knicks of previous leaned closely on isolation basketball — trusting Brunson and Cities to generate factors within the half court docket. Now, underneath Brown’s system, the ball is transferring, shooters are letting it fly, and the Knicks are working in transition to create simpler seems to be early within the shot clock.
They’re making an attempt 9 extra threes per recreation (42.9) than final season (34.1) however are changing these seems to be at a 38.3% clip.
“We always talk about offensively, touch the paint and spray, touch the paint and spray,” Brown mentioned after the sport. “We had 18 sprays, which wasn’t bad. I thought we could have had more.”
One other clear signal the offense is trending upward? Extra scoring steadiness — and extra gamers in double figures.
OG Anunoby (18.2 factors per recreation) is on tempo to surpass final season’s career-best yr, whereas Bridges, now the beginning lineup’s secondary ball-handler, is averaging a career-high 5.2 assists per recreation.
The Knicks have had six or extra gamers rating in double figures in every of their final 4 video games — together with seven with 10 or extra factors of their win over the Wizards.
“A lot of talented guys playing the right way,” mentioned backup level guard Miles McBride.
“I feel like anybody on our team could go out there and look to get their own, but we have such a great group of guys that are playing the right way and playing for each other.”
The Knicks, nonetheless, gave it proper again.
Instantly after their very own 40-point outburst, they allowed the one-win Nets to hold 40 within the second quarter on Sunday, the one 40-point quarter the Knicks have surrendered to date this season.
Nonetheless, the cracks have proven: New York has already given up seven 35-point quarters within the early going
“We’re able to put the ball in the basket now, but we’ve gotta limit those 40-point quarters,” mentioned Brunson, who’s averaging 8.6 assists over his final three video games. “We can’t just trade baskets. We’ve gotta continue to play the defensive side of the ball.”
Brown mentioned the workforce needs to be extra involved with the method than the purpose whole.
“You take the regular season, and you prepare yourself for the postseason,” Brown mentioned. “When you simply go on the market and play the improper manner and win, we’re nonetheless in all probability going to attain — as a result of we’re gifted, and we’ve bought a number of guys that may rating.
“But it’s not going to help us later on. There are things that we have to continue to try to get better at.”
