Knicks left frustrated after loss to Thunder
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns loses control of the ball against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort during the first half of an NBA game Sunday in Oklahoma City. Credit: AP/Nate Billings
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Knicks took the floor against the defending NBA champions seeking affirmation, a sort of season-defining victory. Instead, they left Paycom Center with their egos bruised, their frustration rising and another troubling injury.
The formula, or at least the result, was familiar. The Knicks, like many other teams, found themselves arguing with the officials all night long as Oklahoma City ran a steady procession to the foul line in its 111-100 win.
“I told the team we spent so much time worrying about the officials that we had more turnovers than [OKC],” Mike Brown said. “We had more points off turnovers. They had more fast-break points. And they had more second-chance points. So the officials had nothing to do with that. That’s us boxing out, that’s us getting back in transition. That’s us taking care of the basketball.
“You can’t waste your energy on the officials, and I thought we did that too much tonight. So we have to figure out, you know what, we can’t control the officials. So we have to control what we can control.”
Then again, Brown picked up only his second technical foul of the season (both in games against OKC). He got into the face of referee Mitchell Ervin and had to be pulled back by his players. That’s what the Thunder (59-16) can do to a mood.
But Brown was right: There was much more to this game than simply the free-throws-attempted discrepancy of 38-17, with the Knicks shooting only one more as a team than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander by himself.
They could take some solace that they stood in against the relentless waves of Oklahoma City defenders, absorbing the attacks and somehow coming up with a big shot to remain within striking distance all night long.
They could cross their fingers and hope that Deuce McBride, who returned from a two-month rehabilitation for a sports hernia surgical procedure, was not seriously reinjured as he left the game in pain in the third quarter and was unable to return.
Still, though, 37 seconds. That’s how long the Knicks led for in the entire game. The rest of it was like a street fight.
“We just didn’t do enough to win, and unfortunately, that’s what happens when you play the defending champions,” said Karl-Anthony Towns (15 points, 18 rebounds). “I’ve said they execute and they’re disciplined. They out-executed us and were more disciplined for 48 minutes.”
Towns had some frustration even with the gaudy numbers, recording only nine field-goal attempts even though the Thunder put 6-5 Alex Caruso on him much of the night. Towns wanted the ball in the post, but the Thunder defense is relentless, with waves of double-teams and help coming from every direction, and Caruso is a physical pest.
“I would like to utilize my talent and my size,” the 7-foot Towns said. “But we decided to do something different.”
The Knicks fell behind by as many as nine in the first half and often appeared on the verge of falling apart, struggling to get a shot off against the OKC defenders, a group that often looked as if there were more than five on the floor at one time. But Jalen Brunson (32 points, five assists) and Josh Hart each shot 3-for-4 from beyond the arc in the first 24 minutes — Hart finished the half with a buzzer-beating three-pointer — and the Knicks trailed 53-52 at the intermission.
They took their first lead of the game on the opening possession of the second half. It lasted 37 seconds and then it was gone.
Is that enough to prove that the Knicks belong? They beat the Spurs for the NBA Cup in December. They posted impressive wins over the likes of Boston and Denver. They fought hard against the Thunder in both meetings. But if this is the bar, the Knicks still haven’t met it, losing four straight games to teams with winning records in falling to 48-27.
“Well, we don’t want to turn on the switch,” Brunson said. “We kind of want to be trending in the right direction as we come down to the end. It’s clearly things that we still need to work on, and I’ve always said we don’t want to be a finished product, that we want to continue to get better and better and better, even in the playoffs.
“There’s obviously a lot of things that we still need to work on as a team. If you want to do the things that we said we want to do, then we’ll do them.”
The biggest loss could have come with 5:07 left in the third quarter when McBride lost control of the ball and dived on the floor in a pile to try to save the possession. He immediately seemed to grab at his stomach, and teammates signaled for the training staff to come to his aid. He got to his feet and gingerly made his way to the bench before heading to the locker room and not returning.
“It’s tough,” Brunson said. “He’ll be back. He works too hard. So obviously it’s a tough thing to see. We want him back 100% healthy, ready to go.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
