On Wednesday night, the New York Knicks headed out west and handled the Utah Jazz with ease, winning 134-117 to bounce back after tough back-to-back losses on the road to the Lakers and Clippers.
Nothing revelatory, a Jazz team fighting for nothing, but another reminder that this Knicks squad knows how to respond, writes Rant Sport‘s Joshua Marshall.
And responding is exactly what they’ve been doing all season.
Sitting at 42-25 and third in the Eastern Conference, New York has been quietly building a team that’s showing a serious and compelling championship case.
Knicks take road win
The crown jewel came in December, when the Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 124-113 at the T-Mobile Arena, capturing the NBA Cup and securing the franchise’s first major title since the 1973 NBA finals.
OG Anunoby delivered a dominant 28-point performance, with Jalen Brunson named Cup MVP. Crucially, the team did not hang the banner at MSG, sources saying New York doesn’t want to diminish the accomplishment but has bigger goals in mind: winning the title in June.
The critics, naturally, have been circling. J.R. Smith recently argued that it’s hard to win in the NBA with such a small guard, claiming it’s “not that hard to deal with”. Stephen A. Smith, meanwhile, only backed the Knicks to reach the finals because he anticipated a depleted Eastern Conference, framing their entire season as circumstantial.
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Contradictory takes
These are Lazy takes. Brunson is averaging 27.7 and 6.4 assists per game, exhibiting a poise and command of the game that belies his relatively recent arrival in New York. A small guard? Sure. Unstoppable? Absolutely.
The Fair critique is consistency. Karl-Anthony Towns has seen his numbers dip across the board from last season, and the Knicks rank third in offensive rating and sit inside the top 10 defensively, with a +6.1 net rating placing them in the same statistical tier as Boston, Detroit and Cleveland.
The bones are excellent. The ceiling, when Towns is locked in alongside Brunson, Anunoby and Bridges, is as high as anyone in the East.
The window is open. The trophy is already in hand. Now comes the ones that matter.
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