Porzingis play:
If the NBA’s rising star doesn’t have a big game, can Knicks contend? NHL quarter pole frontrunners, Page 26
NEW YORK – Most nights this season, the Knicks have gone as far as power forward Kristaps Porzingis can take them on his slender shoulders.
And when he hasn’t been able to put up the crazy sort of scoring numbers he’s regularly spun out this season, the result has been predictable. In Boston on Oct. 24, he scored 12 points on 3-for-14 shooting, and the Knicks lost by 21 points to the Celtics. On Nov. 17, Porzingis went 3-for-13 for 13 points in Toronto, and the Knicks dropped a 23-point decision to the Raptors.
After that one-sided loss, Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek reasoned, “He’s still a young player. We can’t expect him to do that every single night.”
Two days later, the coach compared Porzingis to another young New York star, pointing out that New York Yankees rookie Aaron Judge suffered through a miserable month.
Understandable for sure, but it left the Knicks with a bigger question: What do they do when Porzingis isn’t playing like an MVP?
The Knicks have managed to work their way to a surprising 9-7 record and sixth seed in the Eastern Conference entering the week on the strength of Porzingis’s output, as well as a favorable schedule that had them at home for 10 of the first 15 games.
But when Porzingis isn’t scoring 30-plus — as he has in eight games already — the Knicks don’t look like they belong on the floor with some of the better teams in the NBA. And maybe that isn’t the worst thing. A team that’s still far from being a contender is better served landing back in the lottery than pretending it’s something it is not by chasing the eighth seed.
Still, for now the Knicks are playing to win and need to figure out how to play when Porzingis isn’t carrying them or when they aren’t playing at home.
“I mean, I told him in a timeout, I said, ‘You’re the best player out there,’ ” center Enes Kanter said after the loss in Toronto. “He said OK. Second half, he reached out defensively. It’s not just offensively. Some nights we are going to shoot the ball well, some nights we’re not going to shoot the ball well. To get to the next level as a team, (it has to be) defensively.
“I say this every time. For us I think it’s just defensively. We have to trust each other. We have to communicate better, especially on the road. When we are playing at Madison Square Garden with everybody cheering for us it’s good, but on the road we have to figure that out.”
That is the basic truth that Hornacek — as well as most every coach in the NBA — has been preaching. Shots fall and sometimes they don’t, but defense is an attribute that if you play it properly doesn’t go through slumps.
“I think their resiliency (is the difference),” said Hornacek said. “We started off 0-3 and they could have dropped their heads but they didn’t. They kept working hard in practice. They kept going after it.
“If you play hard and buy into playing together and not worry about stats ... just figure out what you’re going to do to help the team win, things usually turn out pretty well. So I think that’s what our guys have done. We’ve had some losses that we’ve bounced right back from, have won the next game.”