CHARLOTTE – They were back-to-back plays in the worst offensive half of the season, a stretch emblematic of a problem Josh Hart is worried will become the blueprint to dismantle the Knicks scoring weapons.
With about 7:15 left in the second quarter, Jalen Brunson’s Mavericks defender, Quentin Grimes, was screened by Karl-Anthony Towns. The screen was weak, almost non-existent, but Grimes still switched to defend Towns as Maxi Kleber took care of Brunson on the ball.
The Knicks (10-8), naturally and predictably, hunted the size mismatch. Towns received a pass at the top of the key and squared up against the much smaller Grimes, who is an apt defender and deceptively strong. Towns laboriously backed him down, using three dribbles to get to the paint before he was quickly met by a double team.
The hook shot didn’t even touch the rim.
About 30 seconds later, the same mismatch developed after a switch. Hart threw the ball into the post to Towns, who backed down too forcefully on Grimes and was whistled for a charge.
Turnover.
The Knicks, in that moment, failed to score on six straight possessions.
Their lowest-scoring quarter in the first 12 minutes mushroomed into their lowest-scoring half.
They were losing by 24.
“We’re giving teams the game plan,” Hart explained after the 129-114 defeat.
It wasn’t the first time Hart voiced this concern.
For all the scoring juice the Knicks have squeezed out this season, they’ve demonstrated a fairly consistent weakness to “teams that switch, teams that junk the game up,” said Hart, noting that the Rockets and Celtics also punished the Knicks with this strategy.
He predicted the Hornets, who the Knicks face on Black Friday afternoon, will do the same under rookie head coach Charles Lee, a former Celtics assistant.
Hart, in turn, offered two solutions: Either use himself more often in the pick-and-rolls, which would alter the rotations and defenders who switch on the screener; or, more simply, attack the switches with more pace.
“We have to adjust accordingly, whether that’s putting me in the actions and still getting the (center involved) and doing that. Or playing faster, playing with more thrust,” Hart said.
“And causing teams to mess up on switches. We have a talented team. Guys who can shoot the ball. So when we’re playing slow, we’re easy to guard. Because we’re going against set defenses.”
To be clear, the switching wasn’t the only reason the Knicks were locked down in the first half against the Mavericks. They shot poorly across the board, including Hart, who flubbed a couple of shots near the rim and tossed a one-armed turnover like he was Daniel Jones in the red zone.
But the Mavericks were also very comfortable throwing their defenders all over the court. There was little regard for assignments.
“There’s a new challenge every day,” Towns said. “I can guarantee you, (Mavericks coach) Jason Kidd’s a hell of a coach. He looked at the game and found ways he could play against us. He did a great job. They were ready.”
Hart recognized the problem. The Knicks devolved into an inefficient halfcourt set, rather than the motion offense that carried the Knicks to 145 points on 45 assists in a Denver win just two nights prior.
In Dallas, they had 20 assists.
“It causes us to get stagnant. When teams switch, we got to play faster,” Hart said. “We got to put them in a position to make mistakes off ball, off screening, miscommunication, those kind of things.
“When we’re playing slow, know they’re switching and we just try to find a mismatch. And then it doesn’t matter if we have a mismatch when you’re going into a set defense behind. So we got to play faster, make them make mistakes, and capitalize that way.”
Brunson agreed.
“Obviously they were switching,” said the point guard. “When it comes to switching you probably need to attack it a little quicker. But it’s a mixture of the ball not going in and getting good looks and then them playing good defense as well at times. It honestly shouldn’t happen the way it happened.”
Left unsaid, but equally important, was the Mavericks own a top-10 rated defense (ranked 7th) with versatility throughout the lineup, especially when Luka Doncic is out injured. The same is true for the Celtics (8th) and Rockets (2nd). The Hornets, on the other hand, are ranked 19th and have a gaping hole on defense in LaMelo Ball.
So even if Charlotte (6-12) attempts to exploit a Knicks weaknesses, it hasn’t demonstrated the commitment or ability to make it work. There are only so many of Houston’s Dillon Brooks in the NBA, the type of defender who can handle both Brunson and Towns.
But the Knicks will have to face those teams during a long season or, more importantly, in the playoffs. It’s another thing to figure out.
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