DENVER — Josh Hart hadn’t seen anything like that before.
Back in October, the defending-champion Boston Celtics welcomed the New York Knicks into the new season with an offensive performance so ridiculous that the Knicks guard could only laugh as he tried to wrap his head around what just happened. Boston took 61 3s and made 29 of them. The Celtics converted on over 50 percent of their field-goal attempts en route to an opening night 132-109 beatdown of New York. Boston, on that night, made the 2015-16 Warriors look mortal.
“The NBA needs to drug test all of them,” Hart said jokingly. “I’ll tell you that.”
Fast forward a month later, and based on Hart’s standards, the Knicks probably should have had to pee in a cup following Monday night’s 145-118 drubbing of the Denver Nuggets.
New York was synchronized swimming on the hardwood, a choir with sneakers. Forget the fact that the Knicks’ point total was the most in regulation for the franchise since 1980, the franchise tied a record for most assists in a game (45), they had a player score 40 points, and another score 30 while only missing three shots, and another score 23 points and dished out 17 assists. The Knicks shot 60.9 percent from the field and 52.8 percent from 3 over a 48-minute contest, which surpassed all of the Celtics’ efficiency marks on the night that Hart, in jest, had never experienced before.
“You’re going to have games like that,” said Hart, who scored 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting. “That’s why we don’t panic after every game. We’ll leave the panicking to y’all.”
After the game, many of the Knicks tried to downplay what just happened.
this is Knicks basketball‼️
OG 40 PTS | 5 REB | 4 AST
KAT 30 PTS | 15 REB | 4 AST
Jalen 23 PTS | 3 REB | 17 AST
Josh 12 PTS | 6 REB | 5 AST
Mikal 14 PTS | 6 AST
Deuce 13 PTS | 6 REB | 3 AST
Cam 11 PTS | 5 AST pic.twitter.com/LCVgi7Ae7N— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) November 26, 2024
“I feel like we’ve been doing this quite a bit,” said O.G. Anunoby, who was the scorer of 40 as he continues his “I’m more than just a defender” tour this season.
In a way, Anunoby is right. The Knicks have had as efficient an offense as basketball has seen this season. They haven’t done this before, though. Not a lot of teams have ever shot over 60 percent from the field, over 50 percent from 3 and had 45 assists with that type of volume as a team. That’s not normal. Denver wasn’t bad from the jump, the Knicks just crumbled the Nuggets and smoked them with a relentless offense.
What Anunoby was getting at, however, is that New York’s offense might not be, in fact, normal. It’s scary good already. And it might be getting better. The Knicks have the second-best offense in the NBA following the victory. They and the Cavaliers are the only two teams in the NBA to rank in the top three in both 2-point and 3-point field-goal percentages. Only two teams shoot better from the midrange than the Knicks. There are only a handful of teams better at moving the ball. They take care of the ball at a league-leading level.
New York has an elite offense despite ranking dead last in the NBA in free-throw attempts per game and being toward the bottom of the league in shots at the rim. Part of the reason the Knicks rank low in these areas is because they’re such an efficient jump-shooting team. They’re leaning into their strengths. They’ve improved at getting into the paint and generating good 3s from the inside out, but still can progress in that department.
The addition of Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 30 and grabbed 15 rebounds, and the spacing he provides has opened up avenues for Jalen Brunson, who scored 23 points and delivered a career-high 17 assists, to get to his spots on the floor and, lately, get deep paint touches with less traffic. It’s opened up lanes for Anunoby and Hart to cut up defenses from multiple angles. It’s allowed the team to generate good looks from 3 for good 3-point shooters. It’s helped Mikal Bridges have room to get to his coveted midrange jumpers while his 3-point shot catches up.
The Knicks have multiple guys who can create their own shots. They have just as many who can score while not initiating offense. When the ball is moving with the decisiveness that it has been in recent games, there isn’t much a team can do to slow the Knicks’ offense.
“I feel like this is a good spot for us (in terms of chemistry),” Brunson said, “but I feel like it’s going to continue to grow throughout this year and into next year.”
The narrative that has followed head coach Tom Thibodeau over the last decade-plus is that he’s a defensive coach. Thibodeau, though, has had top-5 offenses in Chicago, Minnesota and multiple times in New York. His teams generate the types of looks that it takes to win in today’s NBA. They now have the talent across the board to convert on those attempts at a high level.
O.G. Anunoby, shown with Jalen Brunson, reacts following a successful 3-pointer. (Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)
Brunson is finding a perfect balance between getting others involved and still taking advantage of the scoring chops he has. Towns has been extraordinarily efficient as a shooter since being traded to the Knicks. Anunoby is shooting the ball better than he has in his career. Hart is an A-plus cutter and the best finisher at the rim currently. Bridges is one of the better midrange shooters in the league. Miles McBride and Cameron Payne have come off the bench and scored at an efficient clip themselves.
The Knicks’ defense still needs to catch up to its offense, but there have been several instances this season where the swarming defense has turned into easy points on the other end. As New York’s defense improves, the offense will only go up.
Until then, the Knicks will be OK because the goal of the sport is to score more points than your opponents. And, as of late, it feels like New York is the only team that can stop New York from scoring.
(Top photo of Karl-Anthony Towns: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)
