There were moments when it was hard not to let your imagination swirl a little bit. There are a lot of snapshots, a lot of grainy old video of the old Knicks, the championship Knicks, but the one that always does the trick best is one where Willis Reed has the ball in the low post. That starts the pinwheel.
And in a beautiful rapid-fire dance, Willis feeds the ball to Dave DeBusschere in one corner, who swings it to Dick Barnett, who swings it to Clyde Frazier, who touch-passes the ball to Bill Bradley, so open in the corner he could pop open an ice-cold Rheingold. Bradley’s shot splashes. The Garden goes wild. The mind’s eye weeps.
There were a couple of possessions that looked just like that Wednesday night. There were a couple of times when all five Knicks touched the ball, when it went from Isaiah Hartenstein to Jalen Brunson to Julius Randle to OG Anunoby to Donte DiVincenzo, capped by a 3, and the Garden exploded in delight.
It was fun to watch. It is fun to watch when the ball moves like that, when the offense crackles like that, when it seems like half the Bulls were three steps behind the play. There were enough moments like that for the Knicks to win a second straight game at the Garden, 116-100. There were gaudy stat lines from Brunson (31 points, 13 assists) and Randle (35 points) and Hartenstein (10 points, 20 rebounds, five blocks).
“We found ways to win,” Brunson said. “They kept going on runs but we kept our poise and we found a way to get it done.”
Right now, what’s important for the Knicks — and for fans who seem so newly fascinated by what this group can do — is to not get too carried away with how good the starters are looking two games since the trade with the Raptors. Because it is equally important to not get too carried away with the flip side of this.
After all, during the best portions of last year and the early part of this season, one of the Knicks’ most dangerous weapons was the second unit. That was largely due to Immanuel Quickley, who on the nights he was on could electrify the whole team off the bench, teamed with Josh Hart and RJ Barrett and Hartenstein, when Hartenstein was a backup and Barrett a first-unit Knick who joined the backups.
Quickley, of course, was in Memphis Wednesday night, dropping 26 and powering the Raptors to a win over the Grizzlies. So was Barrett. Hartenstein plays with the starters now. As amazingly sharp as the starting five was — three of them with astonishing plus-minuses of plus-30 or more — the second unit scuffled, and was a big reason the Knicks saw an early nine-point lead Wednesday dissolve into a 10-point deficit a few minutes before halftime.
Tom Thibodeau’s preferred path Wednesday was to use Randle in the role Barrett used to occupy — the starter who comes in with the second unit. Ideally, this ensures that either Randle or Brunson will always be on the floor. It’s a sound idea.
It just didn’t work so well against the Bulls. Randle was brilliant with the first unit, continuing a 20-game push in which he has been as good as he’s ever been as a Knick. But his plus-minus for the night was only plus-13, which reflected how much the backups scuffled. And when the Bulls made one final push early in the fourth, Thibodeau was quick to pull Deuce McBride and bring back Brunson earlier than he’d planned.
“We have to try and find a rhythm for the second unit,” Thibodeau conceded. “They need a little bit of time but we’ll figure that out. You’ve got to make simple plays right now, trust each other, make advantages for each other.”
It’s a concern, sure. But if you’re picking through a prosperous game looking for items to toss into your anxiety closet … well, that’s a good night. And it was a good night for the Knicks. It’s been a positive response to the trade so far, and now this new group will hit the Turnpike, seeing where they stand against the Sixers in Philly Friday night. So far, so good.
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