What's happening on and off the Garden court
Sign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.
Here’s the thing about success, even if it’s modest like the Knicks’ second-round appearance last season: there are expectations attached.
So yes, the Knicks played competitively against a championship contender in Wednesday’s opener. But no, there are no moral victories anymore. They’re 0-1. That’s it.
The days of David Fizdale getting excited over Emmanuel Mudiay’s contested jumper in the second quarter of a 30-point loss are over. And Knicks fans should be thankful for that.
With that being said, there are moments to learn, to dissect, to project. Zero wins with one loss, in the grand scheme, doesn’t mean much. The Knicks started 0-1 during their best seasons of the last decade — in 2020 and 2022. They started 1-0 in 2021 (and stunk) and 1-0 in 2018 before tying a franchise record with 65 defeats that season.
So let’s take a look back with an eye forward.
Here are my five thoughts from the opener:
He missed 10 lay-ups. I have to repeat that in capital letters. TEN LAY-UPS. That’s bonkers. He missed three of them on one possession. On a later attempt, the ball just inexplicably flew out of his hand (one of the knocks on Randle, BTW, is that his hands are small and he’s unable to control the rock). Later, Randle drove on Jayson Tatum and just blew a wide open lay-up with his dominant hand. Overall, he missed 17 of his 22 shots and the Knicks were outscored by 13 points in Randle’s 34 minutes.
“We missed shots that we normally make, easy ones around the rim,” Randle said. “I can count three or four around the rim for me, personally, that are bunnies that I usually make. Start off the game missing bunnies. Nights like these happen. Sucks opening night, but that’s why it’s an 82-game season. We’ll bounce back. I’ll bounce back.”
We’re willing to chalk this one up to an anomaly, although there’s some concern it followed Randle’s very disappointing performance in the playoffs. Perhaps some nerves and/or pressure was involved. Randle had been part of a media push leading up to the opener with, among other things, an appearance on “The Tonight Show.”
There was a lot going on.
It wasn’t just the 14-of-26 for the game, which was, to be clear, pitiful. It was the three misses — one apiece from Randle, Jalen Brunson and Quentin Grimes — in the final 4:10 with the game on the line. The Celtics countered by going 14-of-15 from the stripe in the fourth quarter. That was the ball game.
“Missing free throws are mental,” Brunson explained, “especially at home.”
But is that true? Is it a matter of simply focusing more? The larger picture suggests this is an issue for the Knicks. They were 22nd in free-throw percentage last season at 76.1%. Below average. Two seasons ago, they were 26th: well below average.
It’s tough to call a team disciplined when it’s this bad at free throws.
I’m not going to tell fans what they can or can’t cheer, and James Dolan only seems to care about what’s said about James Dolan. Everybody else is fair game.
But I don’t get the Porzingis hate. Especially with the benefit of hindsight.
He had three coaches in less than four seasons with the Knicks. The team president who drafted him, Phil Jackson, was a disaster, tried to trade Porzingis, and was fired.
After Carmelo Anthony was forced out, Porzingis’ best teammates were Tim Hardaway Jr., Enes Kanter and Michael Beasley. The season Porzingis demanded a trade, the Knicks were the worst team in the NBA and were tanking while freeing up cap space to sign Kevin Durant — a player who instead went to the crosstown rival.
Maybe — just maybe — Porzingis was right to want to leave. As he’s admitted, there were elements of the divorce Porzingis could’ve handled better. The Latvian told me last season, “the whole process was just a mess. I didn’t like the way it ended.”
But at this point, the boos and profane chants feel more like a reflexive reaction from fans rather than legitimate disdain. Time to get over it. There are players who’ve done worse and are now treated with reverence.
Porzingis has asked for peace.
“Even getting booed and getting all that, it’s still cool coming back here,” Porzingis said Wednesday. “I really like coming back, and enjoying that. I wish the Knicks and this city and this organization nothing but the best.”
The NBA can’t seem to make up its mind about flopping. In 2012, it installed fines for the offense and enforced it.
Then Adam Silver ignored it. Fines were still an option, though not enforced. Flopping returned and nobody really cared.
This year, the league is experimenting with issuing technical fouls for flopping. The first at MSG was assessed Wednesday to Porzingis for a legitimate flop. The second was bogus.
Brunson was T’d for flailing on a 3-point attempt in the fourth quarter, but replays showed the defender — Tatum — clearly stepped under his foot. Brunson landed on Tatum and fell to the court. He should’ve been awarded three free-throw attempts. Instead, Tatum got a free throw and nailed it to cut Boston’s deficit to 1 with 6:40 remaining. Not a good start for a new rule.
It was a potential 4-point swing in a game the Knicks lost by four.
About two minutes later, Immanuel Quickley was whistled for a foul that appeared questionable, at best. The Knicks challenged and replays showed Quickley challenged a drive from Boston’s Derrick White by keeping his hands up and maintaining that posture through the move.
The referee determined Quickley “jumps A to B and makes illegal contact.” The challenge was unsuccessful. The ruling defied our eyes.
“Quick’s play could’ve gone either way,” Tom Thibodeau said. “From my standpoint, I thought it was great verticality. From their standpoint, it was A to B. Sometimes that’s how close it is.”
White’s subsequent free throws started a 15-5 Celtics run to close the game.
Want to catch a game? The Knicks schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
If you could excuse any Knick for a poor opener it’s the only newcomer to the roster.
Still, it wasn’t encouraging. Donte DiVincenzo went scoreless in over 15 minutes on four shots. It was the first time since December of last year that he played that long without a point.
DiVincenzo was also the only guard in the rotation who didn’t play at least 23 minutes. It was a mystery as to how Thibodeau was going to navigate his guard roster crunch, and the coach broke it down like this in Game 1: Brunson (33 minutes), Quickley (28 minutes), Quentin Grimes (23 minutes), DiVincenzo (15 minutes).
Evan Fournier and Miles McBride, as expected, were out of the rotation.