Poor shooting and poor defense sunk the Knicks in a 121-106 loss to the lowly Jazz on Saturday evening in Utah.
New York fell to 9-7 on the season with a frustrating display. Utah improved to 4-12.
– The modern NBA has become a game that can be defined by a simple phrase: 3-and-D. Saturday exemplified what happens when one team can live up to that and the other does not.
New York was way off from deep connecting on just 17 of 51 attempts (33.3 percent) with Jalen Brunson (2-for-9), Karl-Anthony Towns (1-for-9) and Mikal Bridges (1-for-7) all having poor nights. Brunson – 23 points on 8-for-19 shooting with eight assists in 37 minutes – didn’t connect on his first three of the night until there was 1:25 left in the third after starting 0-for-6. Towns – 16 points on 6-for-19 shooting with 16 rebounds and five assists – made his lone three with 1:10 left in the fourth.
And they couldn’t stop Utah: 44-for-87 from the floor (50.6 percent) and 19-for-34 (55.9 percent) from three, including a 6-for-8 night from deep by Colin Sexton who had 25 points.
Despite all that, New York showed some heart and, on another night, would have made the Jazz sweat. The Knicks erased a 13-point first-quarter deficit to enter the second frame tied, fell behind again as the Jazz pushed the lead to 15 at the half and went down by 19 before responding with a 17-0 run. But they allowed the hosts to respond once again to put the game on ice.
Josh Hart was a team-worse minus-37 in 41 minutes. Towns was minus-34 in 39 minutes and Brunson was a minus-15 in 37 minutes.
– Just as they did in the first and second quarters, the Knicks began the third quarter cold going 3-for-9 from the floor and allowing the Jazz to go 5-for-11 and Sexton’s corner three with 6:48 to play in the quarter had Tom Thibodeau call a timeout with his side down 77-58.
Whatever the head coach said worked: A 7-0 run from the Knicks, with five from OG Anunoby to give him 19 to that point, forced a Jazz timeout with the deficit down to a dozen with half the third to play. (Anunoby finished with 27 points on 10-for-19 shooting (7-for-12 from deep) with three rebounds, three steals and two blocks. He was a respectable minus-7 in 36 minutes and the Knicks’ lone bright spot.)
Out of the timeout, the Knicks got a steal, a Cam Payne three, a big stop with Jericho Sims under the basket before he added a putback slam and an Anunoby steal and an uncontested dunk forced another Utah timeout with the lead down to five.
Out of that stoppage, a defensive stop led to an Anunoby three – to give him 12 in the quarter – and complete a 17-0 run – all with Towns off the floor – cut the lead to 77-75.
New York had the chance to tie the game but missed their next five from the floor allowing Utah to go on a 7-0 run to push the deficit back to nine.
Towns – went scoreless in the period (0-for-4 from the floor) and exited with 6:19 left in the third with New York down 19 and did not return until the fourth. The Knicks won those minutes 20-10 but entered the fourth down 87-78.
– After a Hart layup opened the fourth, New York went on to miss the next four jumpers – including Towns airballing a three. And Thibs called another timeout five minutes in after Utah connected on a third alley-oop of the quarter his team opened the quarter 3-for-9 from the floor. And again trailed by a dozen.
The timeout failed to do the trick as a Brunson turnover was met with a Sexton three and a Brunson missed three was answered with a Johnny Juzang three. The game never swung back the Knicks way.
– The Knicks began the first frame 2-for-10 from the floor and with the pace suiting Utah the lead was 13 before New York finally woke up and connected on the next 7 of 9 attempts to prevent the game from being a runaway. And thanks to a late Bridges’ corner three briefly had a lead before the Jazz leveled the score at 28 after 12 minutes.
Bridges ended the quarter with seven points but on 3-for-9 shooting (1-for-5 from deep). Towns missed all three of his attempts (with one being blocked. He didn’t make another bucket the rest of the game and finished with seven points in 33 minutes.
– The Knicks went right back to being cold as they began the second going 2-for-7 from the floor to fall behind by seven. Towns broke his cold streak, hitting 3 of 4 from the floor for eight points in the first five minutes of the quarter to keep the deficit to six. But outside of the center, the rest of the team was 2-for-9 after Anunoby knocked down his fourth three-pointer in the half.
Thibodeau called for time when Utah pushed the lead to 12 with four minutes to play in the quarter. Worse than the Knicks’ shooting was their defense: The Jazz opened up 9-for-13 in the second frame and were 21-for-40 from the floor and 8-for-16 from three in the game to that point.
A Brunson stepback gave him nine in the half and cut the lead to eight with 1:25 to play, but Utah took advantage of the Knicks missing three jumpers on the next three trips (two by Brunson) and Keyonte George‘s running jumper just beat the buzzer to put New York in a 66-51 hole at the break.
– Towns had a double-double in the first half (10 points on 4-for-10 shooting with 10 rebounds) but was a minus-26 in 21 minutes. Brunson (also 4-for-10 from the floor) was a minus-18 in 16 minutes. And Hart, despite adding eight points, three rebounds and three assists in the first half, was also a minus-26.
In the first half, New York shot 20-for-52 (38.5 percent) from the field and 7-for-26 (26.9 percent) from three.
Utah’s best player of the night led the Jazz with 19 points in 16 minutes in the first half and finished with 34 on the night on 11-for-15 shooting (5-for-8 from three) with nine rebounds and was a plus-30 in 33 minutes. Sexton was also immense with his plus-32 in 38 minutes.
The Knicks look to rebound in the Mile High City as they face the Nuggets on Monday night for a 9 p.m. tip-off.
