Porzingis lauded for smart ‘D’
The Knicks had just scored with four seconds left in the first half to go up 14 points on the Clippers.
So the Clippers inbounded and Blake Griffin raced down and dunked, completely uncontested.
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek was so glad that was the case. Not that Griffin dunked. That it was uncontested. Kristaps Porzingis had two fouls at the time.
“KP was very smart tonight in how he played,” Hornacek said. “He didn’t try to take it personally that he had to try to block his shot. … I don’t want to give up any dunks, but KP last year probably would have tried to block that and gotten called for his third foul and then he can’t use his aggressiveness in the second half.”
So Porzingis stayed away and Griffin dunked. Even if he blocked it, the Knicks would have won by 20. Even though he scored 25 points, this was a night when Porzingis was a bigger factor defensively.
“I knew I had two fouls at that moment. When I got the first one I was all ready, I had it in my head that I don’t want to get a second foul early and have to sit out for a little bit,” said Porzingis, who shot 7-of-20. “I wanted to be in the game at the end. That’s not how you want to finish the half with a wide-open dunk like that, but I felt like I had to let that one go.
“I didn’t do the right thing in our transition defense in that situation. There was three seconds, a lot of time. I had to make that decision to not foul.” Good call. Hornacek had warned before the game about Porzingis staying out of foul trouble and not being frustrated by the physical Griffin. In the end, Griffin fouled out.
And it was Griffin who was impressed by Porzingis.
“He’s just more aggressive. He’s trying to dominate in most of the areas of the game,” said Griffin, who scored 21 points, shot 6-of-18 but clearly was bothered by Porzingis’ 7-foot-3 length. “There were times his first couple of years when he was a little more hesitant. I think now he’s fully embraced that.”
“We knew they were going to be physical, Blake and DeAndre [Jordan], two big physical guys playing at the four and five spot,” Porzingis said. “We were ready for it. It was a great matchup. Every time Blake was attacking or I was attacking against Blake it was a lot of noise, the crowd was making a lot of noise. It was a good matchup. But at the end I’m just happy about the team win.”