Schmeelk: Bad Omen For Knicks As Trip Continues With No Defense
By John Schmeelk
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The Knicks started a stretch of six straight games outside of New York City about as poorly as possible.
As has been chronicled by me and others, this seven-game road trip, which started on Martin Luther King Day with a decisive win in Brooklyn, could very well determine if the Knicks are buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. They desperately needed a solid showing on Wednesday night in Memphis.
It didn't happen.
They had the good fortune of playing the Grizzlies, who were missing both Marc Gasol and Mike Conley. It should have been the easiest game of the trip, but it turned into one of the worst losses of the season.
The Knicks have actually been a respectable defensive team to this point, ranking right in the middle of the league with a 105.7 rating. But they were anything but on Wednesday, as they allowed 61 points in the first half and didn't start showing any resistance in their own end until the second unit came into the game in the third quarter.
A big part of defense is effort, and the Knicks showed very little of it. Another part is player usage. The Knicks put forth one of their best defensive games of the season against the Nets on Monday and it was no coincidence that Enes Kanter and Jarrett Jack played a combined 22 minutes. On Wednesday, they combined for 55 minutes and had a cumulative plus/minus of minus-20. Kanter had a great first quarter offensively, shooting 6-of-7 and grabbing five rebounds, but the Knicks were still down one because the Grizzlies scored 31 points.
Some players are good defenders and some aren't. Neither Kanter nor Jack move great laterally and they both struggle with some team defense concepts. They also play a great deal of their minutes together, usually starting the game and the second half on the floor. It's a philosophy that might need some rethinking, with either Kyle O'Quinn or Frank Ntilikina moving into the starting lineup. If head coach Jeff Hornacek wants his team to be about defense, Jack and Kanter cannot play as many minutes, especially together, as they did Wednesday night.
Against the Nets, Ron Baker played 26 minutes and O'Quinn played 23. Against the Grizzlies they combined for just 22 minutes, with Baker not seeing the floor until the second half. Neither O'Quinn nor Baker will ever make an All-Star team or an All-Defense team, but they are upgrades on defense for the Knicks.
Hornacek's postgame criticism of the team's defending (and not blaming the officials for late fouls and technicals) was absolutely correct, but for some reason when the defense was poor in the first and third quarters the head coach stuck with his starters. If he really wants to send a message to his players when they play poorly in their own end, he should sit down the offenders and put in players that are better.
Hornacek did stick with other things that have worked of late. Even though the shooting numbers didn't reflect it, the Knicks' offense was fine with Hornacek using Kristaps Porzingis similarly to how he did against Brooklyn and New Orleans. Porzingis was catching the ball on the move and only had a few post-up isolations. The team shot poorly from behind the arc, which will happen sometimes, but the offense flowed fairly well.
The Knicks next play in Utah on Friday night. The Jazz have a worse record, but are 13-8 at home. The Knicks then travel to Los Angeles to face the Lakers, who have the fifth-worst record in the league. This should be considered the soft part of the trip before games against the Golden State Warriors and a back-to-back against the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns. Winning both would be essential if the Knicks want to return the Garden with a pulse and a chance to make the playoffs.
Otherwise, it will be time for the front office to trade contracts away.
Schmeelk's Snippets
-- Ntilikina had a rough shooting night Wednesday, going 0-for-6 from the field, including four failed attempts from 3-point range. He did pass the ball well, registering seven assists to just three turnovers, and played his usual solid defense. If the Knicks want to get Trey Burke playing time, it should come at the expense of Jack, not Ntilikina.
-- Damyean Dotson had a good game for the Westchester Knicks on Wednesday, scoring 27 points and grabbing nine rebounds. If Hornacek wasn't going to play him on this road trip it was smart to allow him to get playing time in the G-League. If the rest of the trip goes poorly and Dotson continues to perform well in Westchester, he should be introduced into the rotation when the team comes back home.
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