INDIANAPOLIS — Karl-Anthony Cities drifted from his man, dishonest off Myles Turner to assist on a Tyrese Haliburton drive.
It’s the third quarter of the Knicks’ 132-121 loss to the Pacers, their third defeat within the final 4 video games, and this delicate misstep would set off a sequence response: Turner, ready on the high of the important thing, obtained the ball from Haliburton, and with Cities late to contest, Indiana’s famous marksman middle drilled a 3—a play emblematic of New York’s early-season struggles to defend the three-point line.
It was solely Turner’s first try from deep of the second half—and his first made triple of the sport—however the influence was speedy. His long-distance shot set off a taking pictures spree as he nailed 4 extra threes, each exposing lapses within the Knicks’ defensive rotation.
Cities, repeatedly caught both too deep within the paint or failing to shut out with urgency, personified New York’s recurring downside: an lack of ability to acknowledge and adapt to perimeter threats.
“He’s a good player, and we lost track of him as a team,” Jalen Brunson stated of Turner after the sport. “It’s not one person’s fault or anything. We’ve got to cover for each other.”
Moments after his first made three, Cities misplaced observe of Turner, who lingered simply behind the motion, trailing a backcourt inbounds go to Haliburton. Turner casually drifted to the highest of the important thing, the place he obtained the ball with Cities nonetheless buried within the paint, pinned by a display Haliburton had set.
Turner’s three clanked off the rim, however Pascal Siakam knocked the ball off the glass, recovered it, then shortly bought it to Bennedict Mathurin. OG Anunoby rotated to cowl Mathurin, and Mikal Bridges deserted Turner to select up Haliburton.
In the meantime, Cities lingered in no-man’s land, failing to step as much as contest Turner, leaving him wide-open as soon as extra. By the point Turner obtained the go, Josh Hart—who was guarding Siakam but in addition the closest Knick to the open shooter—pointed at Turner in confusion as Indiana’s stretch 5 nailed one other triple, his second inside 67 seconds of recreation clock.
“We’ve got to look at the scheme, we got to look at the match up, we got to look at a lot of things,” head coach Tom Thibodeau stated. “And awareness. If we understand that a guy hits a three, the next time down, they’re searching for him. Have that awareness of what’s going on in the game.”
“That was tough, especially that late,” Hart added. “We’ve got to communicate better, got to know our guys’ tendencies better. Obviously that takes time. Communication, it’s going to improve.”
Turner hammered the ultimate nail late within the fourth, capitalizing as soon as once more as Cities drifted away, leaving the sharp-shooting huge man vast open within the nook. Turner sank the three, stretching the Pacers’ result in 14 with just below 90 seconds remaining—a dagger from which the Knicks couldn’t get well.
In a flawless closing stretch, Turner went 3-for-3 from deep within the fourth quarter, with every shot touchdown inside the final five-and-a-half minutes, cementing his pivotal function within the Pacers’ decisive victory. He completed with 26 factors and made all 5 of his 3s within the second half.
“He’s a good player. He can shoot the ball. He’s one of those few bigs in this game that can stretch the court with his shooting ability,” Cities stated after the sport. “There’s some opportunities we gave him that were unfortunate, especially off of daggers, too, and second-chance points. I think those are the ones that really hurt. Great player. You know he’s gonna make some shots. But the ones you can control are the ones you lose sleep over.”
Turner is just not the one participant who made 3s on Sunday evening, and the Pacers aren’t the one staff to make 3s towards the Knicks.
The Hawks beat the Knicks courtesy of a 15-of-38 taking pictures evening from downtown. In Boston, the Knicks witnessed an historic three-point barrage on opening evening, because the reigning champions tied an NBA report with 29 made on 49 makes an attempt—a spectacle dampened solely when the Celtics’ third unit missed 12 straight in a late-game bid for the record-breaking thirtieth.
Towards Cleveland on Oct. 28, the Knicks’ perimeter protection faltered once more. Whereas the Cavaliers collectively shot a modest 12-of-36, Dean Wade, a profession 37% 3-point shooter, went 0-for-5 from deep, with each miss approaching open or late-contested appears, a incontrovertible fact that solely underscored the Knicks’ battle to restrict high quality three-point alternatives.
And past Turner’s scorching hand on Sunday, Mathurin torched the Knicks with seven 3s on 9 makes an attempt en path to a career-high 38 factors. Haliburton delivered his greatest efficiency of the season, scoring 35 factors with 4 triples of his personal, whereas Siakam and backup Jarace Walker every added a pair from past the arc.
Karl-Anthony Cities sounds alarm after Knicks lose for third time in 4 video games: ‘I’m disenchanted’
The Pacers shot 21-of-46 from downtown. The Knicks made seven 3s on simply 25 makes an attempt.
“Regardless of what’s happening on the offensive end, we can control what we can control — and that’s the defensive side,” Brunson stated. “I think offensively, offense is not really the problem. In the fourth quarter being outscored yes, but it really starts with our defense.”
Digging deeper, the numbers paint an image of the Knicks’ defensive vulnerabilities.
They rank thirteenth in opponent three-point proportion, permitting groups to shoot 35.3% from past the arc. But it surely’s the amount that’s regarding—Regardless of enjoying on the league’s slowest tempo, New York is conceding 38.7 makes an attempt per recreation, the Tenth-highest mark within the league, simply shy of the league’s worst in Atlanta and 7 makes an attempt greater than Houston, which leads on this defensive class.
A key situation is the standard of appears New York is conceding: opponents are taking a mean of 17.9 “wide-open” threes per recreation, rating twelfth on this class, however it’s the 16 “open” threes—the place a defender is four-to-six ft away—that reveal an important hole. Right here, the Knicks are among the many league’s poorest, rating fourth-worst, trailing solely Sacramento, Golden State, and Indiana.
And regardless of taking pictures a powerful 39.5% from deep—third within the league behind solely Cleveland and Denver—the Knicks are taking solely 34.3 threes per recreation, inserting them within the league’s backside ten by way of quantity. It’s a shocking determine for a staff whose commerce for Cities signaled a run-and-gun offensive period.
Karl-Anthony Cities continues to make Knicks commerce look good towards Bucks
Earlier than tipoff, Thibodeau addressed the idea of tempo as subjective however emphasised the significance of a balanced offensive strategy.
“Everyone tends to say all 3s, and it’s not just all 3s. It’s as many layups as you can get,” he stated. “But you want to have a balance. You have to understand the math of the game in terms of, if someone’s making 20 3s, and you’re making 10, it’s gonna be pretty hard to win that game.”
Postgame, nevertheless, Thibodeau’s focus shifted sharply to the staff’s lackluster protection past the arc—a crucial situation for a staff with championship ambitions.
“We gave up way too much. [If] we don’t challenge shots, they’re going to make,” he stated. “Too big of a discrepancy from the three-point line: They made 21, we made 7. That’s a problem. We’ve got to fix it, and we’ve got to fix it fast.”
