Knicks can’t find rhythm in 121-106 loss to Jazz ending four-game win streak

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.

Here are some takeaways…

– 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…


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Author : SNY

Publish date : 2024-11-24 00:35:00

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