After a slow start on Thursday night, the Knicks put together another remarkable offensive performance.
They hit 54 percent of their shots (54.5 percent from beyond the arc) in a 125-101 win over a depleted Hornets team.
Yes, the Knicks are supposed to dominate a rebuilding team without three of its best players — LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges and Tre Mann were out due to injury.
But Thursday’s performance was not an outlier. The Knicks own the NBA’s best offense through the first quarter of the season.
They rank No. 1 in offensive efficiency, No. 2 in effective field-goal percentage, No. 3 in assist ratio and No. 2 in assist/turnover ratio.
“They’ve made a conscious effort to move the ball and to create advantages,” Tom Thibodeau said after the win on Thursday. “I think the more you help somebody else, the more you’re helping yourself. I think the cuts have been decisive; driving the ball off the cut, and then relocating, and just being unselfish, making the extra pass to get a great shot. That takes everyone working together, and I think they’re all doing that. The unselfishness has been terrific.”
Over the last 10 games, the Knicks are averaging 29.9 assists per game and shooting 50 percent from the floor (42 percent from beyond the arc).
“I just think we have the basketball IQ and everything to go out there and do what’s asked of us,” Jalen Brunson said. “We know we have a lot of weapons out there. We know we have a lot of threats all over the court. And, we just have to play off each other.”
Brunson has been a driving force for the offense. He’s fifth in the NBA in assist-to-turnover ratio among players who play at least 30 minutes per game (minimum 18 games played). He’s ninth in assist ratio among the same group of players.
“The big thing with Jalen is he’s always provided what the team needs in whatever role he’s been in,” Thibodeau said Thursday. “He’s had every role. In Dallas, he was off the bench. And then he comes here and his role changes. And then we had injuries and then he had to score a lot more. And he adapted to that very well also. And now we have scorers so he’s reading the game really well.”
Precious Achiuwa made his regular season debut on Thursday after missing the first 21 games due to a hamstring strain.
Achiuwa played 11 minutes against Charlotte. How does the rotation change with Achiuwa back? It’s possible that Jericho Sims’ minutes decrease. Sims played just three minutes on Thursday.
Thibodeau was asked if Achiuwa’s presence would remove Sims from the regular rotation.
“No. I didn’t like the energy of the group, so we just started searching for something that could get us going,” the coach said. “So you’ve got to make sure that you’re getting things done out there.”
