The Knicks went the entire month of November without a home win and started December the same way. New York lost its ninth straight game and seventh in a row at Madison Square Garden in a tough 103-99 setback to New Orleans on Sunday night.
For a team that was supposed to be at least on the fringe of contention in the Eastern Conference, it’s almost unfathomable that the Knicks are 3-13. Coach Mike Woodson told reporters before the game that the team lacked identity and mentioned how important the three-ball was in today’s NBA.
So the Knicks took 35 3-pointers against the Pelicans. Cause and effect? Perhaps, but the team got way too three-happy in the fourth quarter and ended up missing 10 of its last 12 shots from the arc.
“We have been struggling so badly at the 3-point line that shots look so appetizing,” Woodson said. “We settled.”
Instead of rising to the occasion in the fourth quarter this season, the team has sputtered and wilted in close games. New York is 1-4 in games decided by five points or less, and Woodson admitted that the losing is in the team’s head.
“I thought coming down the stretch we played on our heels,” Woodson said. “Like this [losing streak] was staring us in the face instead of relaxing and playing.”
So what exactly has gone wrong for this team? There are two major factors:
The Knicks can’t score
New York is 26th in the NBA in scoring at 92.8 points per game. Over the Knicks’ last 11 games, they have broken 100 just once, in a loss to Houston.
Believe it or not, Andrea Bargnani has been a bright spot on offense alongside Carmelo Anthony, but there just isn’t that consistent second option. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored a career-high 21 points in the loss to New Orleans, but J.R. Smith was supposed to help the most as New York’s secondary scorer.
“It felt great leaving my hands but it was one of those days, I guess,” Smith said after shooting 4-of-11 from the field Sunday. The problem is that one of those days for Smith has extended to the entire season. He is shooting 33.1 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from three. The Knicks are 1-10 when Smith plays and 2-3 in the five games he missed during his season-opening suspension.
Let’s go in depth and see where else the team is lacking offensively:
Knicks Offense |
Number |
League Rank |
FG % |
42.1 |
26 |
3 FG % |
32.2 |
27 |
Field Goals |
35.5 |
24 |
Free Throw Attempts |
17.9 |
29 |
FT’s Made |
13.7 |
29 |
Points Per Shot |
1.1 |
29 |
Excluding shots per game, the Knicks are toward the bottom of the league in nearly every major statistical category.
They can’t hit shots, wether they are worth two or three. They don’t get to the free throw line. They are the least efficient offensive team in the NBA. That’s an indictment of the players, coaches and everyone involved.
“I think they (Pelicans) were the aggressors down the stretch,” point guard Raymond Felton said. “We have to keep being aggressive, keep attacking.”
Based on the way the Knicks fail to get to the line, perhaps the team needs to start being aggressive rather than keep doing so.
Their defense is sneaky bad
If you look at the team’s basic defensive stats, you would wonder what the big deal was. New York’s field goal defense is 19th in the league – below average but not terrible. Their 3-point defense is actually third in the league at 32.9 percent. But all that doesn’t account for how the team is getting buried inside without Tyson Chandler in the lineup and with Bargnani as the team’s de facto center and rim protector.
Knicks D | Number | League Rank |
Points Per Shot | 1.31 | 30 |
FT Attempts | 27.6 | 29 |
FT Made | 22.1 | 30 |
Rebound Margin | -2.4 | 24 |
Def. Rating | 105.4 | 28 |
When you see the team’s lack of efficiency on both ends and the number of points the Knicks allow per 100 possessions, the 3-13 record shouldn’t be a surprise.
“We can’t seem to figure it out defensively,” Anthony said before discussing the team’s failure in switching and miscommunication. “When it counted, we didn’t make plays on the defensive end.”
Smith even admitted “I don’t know what I was doing on defense.”
Iman Shumpert, seemingly in the franchise’s doghouse despite being perhaps the team’s best healthy defender, sat in the fourth quarter while Smith and Hardaway were hitting jumpers.
All the losing hasn’t stopped Woodson from continuing to preach the same messages to the team. He continues to stress the importance of stout defense, but the team just does not get it.
“We are not taking pride in guarding,” he said. “We kept putting our bigs in a tough position because we aren’t getting to the ball. It’s going to be the same thing over and over again, and until we take pride in guarding the ball it is going to be nights like this. We needed some stops and we couldn’t get them.”
The Knicks can’t get to the free throw line and allow the most points off free throws in the league. The team can’t rebound well without Chandler and isn’t aggressive enough on either end.
“Seven straight period … at home or not … nine straight overall … we can’t seem to figure it out but we have to and keep going,” Anthony said.
What to do from here
If the Knicks want to get out of this “dark place” as Anthony called it, the team has some of its own suggestions. “Defensively we have to get better,” Woodson said.
Smith said once the team “takes pride” in guarding the ball, things will work themselves out, failing to address the team’s stagnant offense. Anthony mentioned that Chandler’s return will help, but “he isn’t going to be back for a while. The guys who are out there will have to figure it out.”
As one of those guys, Felton said that the team needs to focus on the minor things that win games along with the team playing more aggressively at both ends.
Hardaway said that “we are upset and we know what we have to do to get better as a team and we have the veterans that can make it work.”
A similar message to Hardaway’s has been echoed by the team for weeks during this streak. These Knicks veterans aren’t making things worse. The play has been a bit better of late, but it hasn’t been enough to defeat average to above-average teams, even at home.
Until the Knicks can drastically improve and be half the team people expected before the season, they will remain an embarrassment and – given their expectations – the laughingstock of the NBA.
Shlomo Sprung is a national columnist for Sheridan Hoops who loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. His website is SprungOnSports.com. You should follow him on Twitter.