IT’S NOT HOW YOU START.. ..
FRANK, TREY SPARK WIN OFF BENCH
ORLANDO, Fla. — The All-Star break is over. The Knicks’ eightgame losing streak is over. And this three-headed, young pointguard maze has just begun.
In a surprising twist Thursday, Emmanuel Mudiay started, but Trey Burke closed as the hero, forming a cohesive finishing tandem with rookie Frank Ntilikina.
A forgotten man since the Mudiay trade two weeks ago, Burke bided his time and erupted for a season-high 26 points in 30 minutes, making 12-of-20 shots to lead the Knicks to a second-half comeback and 120-113 victory over the Magic at Amway Center.
In a venue filled with a loud contingent of Knicks fans, Ntilikina aided Burke by playing excellently on the defensive end as coach Jeff Hornacek kept the duo on the floor down the stretch — pleased with their defensive juice as Mudiay sat.
“We’re still trying to win games,” Burke said. “I know a lot of people think otherwise. It’s not in our DNA to go out there and lay down and not win.”
While all the talk centered around Ntilikina and Mudiay, Burke, who signed last month, did it on both ends. Before the break, Burke vowed to react differently to his latest adverse situation than he did in prior stops in Utah and Washington.
“That’s definitely a boost,” Burke said of finishing the game. “When you’re in at the end of the game, you’re obviously doing something because you’re helping produce. You’re helping this team win. That’s my mindset going forward, continuing to build off of games like this.”
Hornacek was delighted Burke came alive after his recent lack of playing time.
“I know he can put the ball in the hole and he can get hot,” Hornacek said. “He can control the pace. He’s a guy that when they’re putting a lot of pressure on it, you give him the ball, he’ll be able to get something going. But defensively, I thought he was the key because he got up on the guy. He was in that locker room, looked like he was dead tired. I said that’s how the guys are supposed to be when they come in that locker room. Trey was great on both sides of the ball.”
Ntilikina notched seven points, two assists, three rebounds and two blocks and looked like the defensive demon he was earlier in the season. In the fourth quarter, he blocked shots by both guard Mario Hezonja and center Bismack Biyombo.
The Knicks allowed 69 points in an awful first half before buckling down — holding Orlando to 44 in the final two quarters.
“There was a couple plays early that he maybe thought it was still the rookie All-Star Game, where he let a couple guys go right by,” Hornacek said of Ntilikina. “The second half he was great. That’s where his strength is. It’s defense. It’s getting loose balls, using his length to get steals or blocks like that. You can keep guys on the court when they play great defense.”
It’s only going to get more challenging for Hornacek to split up the minutes constructively, but he liked all of Thursday’s contributions.
In his first Knicks start, Mudiay scored eight points with four assists and five rebounds. As expected, veteran starter Jarrett Jack did not play given the new developmental philosophy to go with the 25-and-under set of point guards.
In the end, the minutes were divvied up with Burke topping out at 29:46, Ntilikina 29:42 and Mudiay 22:46.
“The combination of those three was hopefully something we get all the time,” Hornacek said. “It’s going to be a battle. Hopefully those guys aren’t battling each other like, ‘I hope that guy doesn’t do well so I can play.’ Let them all play well and be happy for each other and push each other.”
On what essentially amounted to the game-sealer, Burke misfired, Ntilikina got the offensive board and fed Tim Hardaway Jr., who scored on a floater for an ninepoint lead with 4:20 left. Hardaway had his second straight nice shooting game, finishing with 23 points on 9-of-19 shooting after an egregious seven-game slide.
“All three of us have different strengths that we bring to the table. I definitely think it could work.”