NBA Watch: Knicks Succumb to Hornets on MLK Day, 97-87

NEW YORK - The New York Knicks welcomed the Charlotte Hornets to Madison Square Garden Monday afternoon (Tuesday in Manila) for a Martin Luther King Day matinee showdown. With personalities such as Knicks legend Walt Frazier, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in attendance, the home team bowed to the Hornets after 48 minutes of action, 97-87.

Charlotte is 5-2 in their last seven meetings with New York. The Knicks have won eight of their last 12 assignments since Christmas in large part due to their defense, currently ranked second best in the league, but Charlotte’s offense proved to be too overwhelming with the Hornets leading at one point during the game by as much as 23 points. Bucking the last-minute absence of Lamelo Ball due to a reported non-COVID illness, Charlotte relied on the rest of its starters to take care of a gritty New York squad. Ball, last year’s Rookie of the Year awardee, participated in the pre-game shootaround and was on the Hornets’ bench during the game.

Immanuel Quickley warming up

Photo by Mikko Abello.

Miles Bridges led the Hornets with a career-high 38 points along with 12 rebounds and 5 assists. Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward also contributed 22 and 16 respectively with the trio combining for 76 of their team’s 97 points. The Knicks’ RJ Barrett led his side with 18 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals while teammate Julius Randle also finished with a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds to go with 3 assists.

The visiting team went for the jugular right out of the gate with Bridges having a monster first quarter with 22 points in just the first 12 minutes of play.

"He's their leading scorer, we knew he was going to be aggressive,” assessed Barrett about Bridges’ stellar performance. “He came out and had a huge first quarter so that really got him going. He was going downhill, they were getting a good whistle, he made some tough shots, he made some tough plays so kudos to them.” New York also shot just 30.4% from the field on 7 for 23 shooting which did not help their cause. 

New York went on a 7-0 run to start the second quarter led by Brooklyn native Obi Toppin to cut the lead to just 4 at the 9:53 mark. The Hornets would regroup and outscore the Knicks 28-21 at the end of the second period to extend the lead to 62-44 at halftime.

The third quarter was more evenly matched with New York turning up the energy and keeping pace offensively with Charlotte. The fourth was the lone quarter the Knicks dominated offensively but it would be too late with the deficit too insurmountable and the clock working against the home team. 

“We got in a hole early. That’s the challenge particularly when you play an early game. Readiness to play, you know we played from behind,” said New York Head Coach Tom Thibodeau. “They got going, it was difficult to stop and then when we got our defense together, it was too late.”

RJ Barrett during pre-game shotaround

Photo by Mikko Abello.

The veteran mentor gave credit to the Hornets for the win where his team found themselves playing catch up basketball almost all throughout. “We know how good they are and they’re an outstanding offensive team. They keep constant pressure on you. We knew we would have to play for 48 minutes,” Thibodeau said. “You can get down double digits but you also know you can come back and we didn’t shoot the ball particularly well tonight and usually we shoot the three pretty well. We didn’t do that tonight.”

Despite dominating the boards 53-39 today, the Knicks turned the ball over 15 times as compared to just seven by the Hornets. The Knicks’ Head Coach talked about the difficulties his team faced earlier but also explained how they needed to play consistent basketball from tipoff until the final buzzer.

“The challenge for us on this one was the travel, early start and then back-to-back tomorrow,” he shared. “Every night in this league, you’re faced with physicality, readiness to play, and in this league if a player gets going, every player in this league is capable of going on runs.” Thibodeau added, “The big thing is you can withstand that if your defense is tied together so we got to make sure we play for 48 minutes.”

The Knicks currently have a 22-22 win-loss record and play the second of a back-to-back Tuesday night (EST) against the Minnesota Timberwolves (21-22) and continue their four-game homestand with the New Orleans Pelicans (16-28) and Los Angeles Clippers (22-23) on Thursday and Sunday respectively.