OG Anunoby, Knicks stand tall while routing Nuggets
OG Anunoby of the Knicks lays up a basket in the first half against the Nuggets at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
If you are going to set up a measuring stick for just how good the Knicks might be, you might as well make that measuring stick a 6-11, 284-pound two-time MVP, Nikola Jokic, and the defending champion Nuggets.
So the only question after it was over was this: Just how good are the Knicks?
Can they be as good as they looked playing without their top two centers, as good as they were as they coasted to a 122-84 destruction of the Nuggets on Thursday night at the Garden?
They certainly looked like a team deserving of All-Stars, which they came up empty on when the starting lineups for next month’s game were announced shortly before tipoff.
And while Jokic — even with a four-minute absence late in the first half after being poked in the eye — was as advertised, it wouldn’t be a stretch to argue the case for a handful of Knicks as the best players on the floor for this one night.
When OG Anunoby exited the game with 8:06 remaining and the Knicks leading by 34, he was serenaded with a loud contingent of fans chanting his name, and deservedly so. He had 26 points and six steals and was a plus-38 in 29:19.
Jalen Brunson, the closest player to earning a spot in the balloting for the starters among the Knicks, had 21 points and shot 7-for-10. Julius Randle added 17 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. Brunson and Randle enjoyed the fourth quarter from the bench after earning an early end to their night.
“It was a good feeling,” Anunoby said. “That was a great team win. We played hard, we had a great game plan and we went out and executed it.”
What certainly was shown is that the Knicks are more than just a team feasting on the dregs of the NBA. They entered the night with a 20-1 record against teams below .500 but were 7-16 against teams with winning records. That argument has lost steam now that Anunoby is a Knick. Since the trade, the Knicks (28-17) are 11-2, boast the league’s best defense and have beaten Minnesota, Philadelphia and Denver.
“It’s easy to sit there and say this,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Oftentimes people don’t look at context. What were the circumstances? Were they road games? Were they back-to-backs? Were people out? We also have some great wins. We’re going to challenge every night. I don’t look at a game like ‘we should win this one.’ There are always factors. Is a team off and we’re on the second night of a back-to-back? That could happen. Who were the teams you were playing?”
So what do the numbers tell him? “I ask you guys to dig into it,” he said. “If you do that, you’ll see.”
You didn’t need to dig deep on this night. The eye test was eye-opening as the Knicks dominated every aspect of the contest. They clearly are a different team from the one that lost its first six meetings against Boston and Milwaukee.
“There’s a reason the crowd was chanting OG,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “He was outstanding. They’re 11-2 with him in the lineup now. He brings defense, he brings offense, he brings toughness, he brings physicality. He and the rest of the guys in the New York Knick uniforms tonight were terrific from beginning to end. So give them a lot of credit for protecting their home court.”
The Knicks were playing without Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein. That meant little-used Jericho Sims drew the starting assignment against Jokic, but as Thibodeau likes to say, against a star, you defend with your team.
Jokic finished with 31 points and 11 rebounds in 27:29 but never was able to dominate. Anunoby, who has defended Jokic in the past, started out on Jamal Murray and shut down the dangerous guard, limiting him to nine points.
The Knicks certainly were undersized but outplayed the Nuggets from the opening tip by outrunning them, defending frantically, and efficiently connecting from all over the floor. The Knicks built a 33-21 lead after one quarter and stretched it to 62-41 at the half and 98-66 after three quarters.
With 6:46 to play in the third quarter, Anunoby poked the ball loose from Michael Porter Jr., starting a fast break that ended with Brunson slipping past Jokic and throwing down — maybe a little strong for just getting over the rim — a dunk for a 77-50 lead. That sent the Garden crowd and the Knicks’ bench into a frenzy, an early cap to a statement win.
“It’s just a little bit of circumstance how we play that night,” Brunson said. “A win’s a win. We win by 40, we win by four, it doesn’t matter.”
“I ain’t gonna lie to you, bro, it’s regular season,” Randle said. “I could care less. I just like the fact that we won, first and foremost. We don’t want to be on that end. We’re building the right habits. But for me, it only matters in April.”
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.
