Showing toughness right as the schedule toughens
Ntilikina impressive in silencing Celts' Irving down stretch
C ONSIDER the obstacles for the Knicks.
The opponents were the Boston Celtics, owners of the best record in the Eastern Conference. Yes, for one night Thursday the Celtics had a simply awful second unit and played on the second half of a back-to-back. But still, the best record in the East means something.
The Knicks’ best player, Kristaps Porzingis, was back after missing two full games with a sore left knee. He proceeded to shoot more like a cyclops than a unicorn, missing all 11 shots, all in the first half.
“Kobe says you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. Today I missed all hundred,” Porzingis said.
Porzingis did not score until 9:42 of the third quarter when he made 1-of-2 free throws, his only point. Porzingis exited with 5:20 left in the third quarter and did not return. One point from the leading scorer.
The Knicks’ second best player, Tim Hardaway Jr., missed his 10th straight game with a lower left leg stress injury. Before the game, he did “a little jumping,” according to coach Jeff Hornacek. “A little jumping” doesn’t sound like he’s playing soon.
So saddled with all that, the Knicks embarked on what looms as their make-orbreak section of the schedule. The Boston game began a 44-day, 23-game stretch that doubled as a descent to the seventh circle of hell. And they won. “The most important thing is we were able to get this win. The second unit stepped up big and we were able to get rest because we play again tomorrow and that was huge,” Courtney Lee said.
So despite blowing huge leads — 13-2, 21-7 early — despite falling behind by nine in the third quarter, despite the status of Porzingis and Hardaway, they still won. Even the fans at the Garden were shocked by the eventual 102-93 triumph, so much so that they chanted “M-V-P, M-V-P,” for Porzingis’ replacement, the rejuvenated Michael Beasley. “Phenomenal,” Lee said. “I’m just out here doing what I got to do. It’s nice to hear,” said Beasley, who scored a season-high 32 points, 28 after halftime, 18 of those in the fourth quarter.
“I felt good. I felt normal. I felt like me,” said Beasley, who was 13-of-20 from the floor, including 5-of-6 on 3s. “I didn’t feel like I was hot. I didn’t feel like I had the hot hand. I felt like we made more plays as a team, especially on the defensive side. Doug coming in giving us a big shot at the top of the key. Frank giving us two big 3s. I felt like we did more as a team.” Doug would be McDermott (eight points) and Frank would be Ntilikina (eight points), both part of a second unit that slaughtered Boston’s reserves, 56-20.
And for this game, Beasley was the MVP against a Boston team that has faced its own injury and depth issues all season, starting with the opening night loss of Gordon Hayward.
“It was one of them kick-them-whilethey’re-down situations. They lost [Wednesday] night. We just didn’t want to let them get their second wind,” Beasley said.
So they jumped on them early. Let them recover. Then put them away.
“Actually, I think thanks to me the game was closer,” said Porzingis, who had zero points in one game as a rookie. “And I kept it close otherwise I think we should have won by a bigger difference if I would have had a better game.”
Hey, they got a win to start that upcoming stretch that takes them on the road for 17 of those 23 games. And they are a mere 2-9 away from the Garden.
“You go into every game thinking it’s the most important game. You have to try to win that game tonight, there’s nothing you can do about a game two weeks from now,” Hornacek said.
Six-plus weeks and 23 games is a huge chunk of the season. It will reveal an awful lot about the Knicks. This is the test where they learn if they have the depth, endurance and talent to stay afloat.
For the very first leg, they did. Against considerable odds.
Knicks rookie point guard Frank Ntilikina got his first experience facing Kyrie Irving, and it went better than he could have hoped.
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek stuck with Ntilikina in the fourth quarter Thursday night against the Celtics, and the rookie made the West Orange, N.J., great work hard. Ntilikina also hit two giant 3-pointers in the fourth as the Knicks prevailed 102-93 at the Garden.
“He still scored the ball but I tried to limit him, deny him and made him work,’’ Ntilikina said of his first meeting against Irving.
Irving finished with 32 points on 12-of-27 shooting, but had a quiet nine points in the final quarter. Ntilikina mustered eight points, making 3-of-5 shots with two steals and was a plus-13.
“It was very challenging, [Irving is] one of the best point guards in the league. It was a challenge to limit him,” the rookie said. “We did a better job in the second half.”
Irving had wanted to be Ntilikina’s teammate when he pushed for a trade to the Knicks in the summer.
“He’s on good on-ball defender, long,’’ Irving said. “For a young player he doesn’t back down. I’m looking forward to playing against him again.”
Asked about his two big 3- pointers, Ntilikina said, “I”m just trying to get the win.’’
Knicks president Steve Mills, reflecting on last season’s malaise, admitted he knew his former boss, Phil Jackson, was taking the team in wrong direction but couldn’t stop it.
“Everyone was frustrated. One of our players [ Carmelo Anthony] was obviously frustrated,’’ Mills told the Associated Press. “Our fans were frustrated, we were frustrated, and so it led us to think we have to do something different and I felt strongly about it. I addressed it with Phil and our coaching staff and our entire staff, that in my view we weren’t a team that really stood for anything in particular and that needed to change. If it meant changing the triangle, it if meant changing our dayto-day stuff, we had to become more definable by something.” When the Knicks released Tim Hardaway Jr.’ s medical update Tuesday, it stated the guard, who is out with a stress injury to his left leg, would step up his court work before being reevaluated next week.
Hardaway was seen doing what the club described as “light shooting” Monday, when the Knicks played at Charlotte, not getting off the ground. Hornacek said that has picked up a bit, but as of Thursday afternoon, he hadn’t been cleared to run.