{"id":260760,"date":"2025-09-01T02:42:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T02:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/260760\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T02:42:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T02:42:18","slug":"knicks-embarrassed-by-thunder-in-boo-filled-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/260760\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks embarrassed by Thunder in boo-filled loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the Knicks\u2019 first Thunder test spiraled into a collapse<\/a>, then this was a flop. A shellacking. <\/p>\n

A \u201cterrible\u201d game, Jalen Brunson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Knicks never possessed a 14-point lead \u2014 or anything larger than four \u2014 to hand back to the Thunder. <\/p>\n

They trailed by as many as 30. <\/p>\n

They were booed back to the locker room after an opening 24 minutes in which they managed just 43 points, their second-fewest in a first half this season.<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson reacts during the Knicks-Thunder game on Jan. 10, 2025. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

They were booed back down the tunnel after the 126-101 loss ended. <\/p>\n

Fans who packed the Garden started filing out midway through the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With another chance to make a statement against the top team in the Western Conference, the Knicks didn\u2019t even come close. <\/p>\n

Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein is all smiles between New York Knicks guard Josh Hart and center Karl-Anthony Towns during the third quarter on Friday night. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Mikal Bridges missed all nine of his shots. <\/p>\n

The Knicks tied their season low with four 3-pointers for the second time in a week. <\/p>\n

Mikal Bridges had a night to forget for the Knicks on Friday. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

The Thunder, which entered the night with the NBA\u2019s best defensive rating, suffocated offensive possessions and forced the Knicks to shoot just 38.5 percent from the field. <\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (39 points) looked like an MVP hopeful, but the Knicks made Isaiah Joe \u2014 averaging 8.1 points \u2014 look like he belonged in the conversation, too, after a 31-point eruption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it,\u201d Bridges said of the booing. \u201cThe missing shots, that\u2019s something you really can\u2019t control. Just keep making them, keep getting them up. But \u2026 defensively, a lot of miscues, lack of communication, which is very boo-worthy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had an MVP performance on Friday night against the Knicks. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

The embarrassment continued a concerning stretch for the Knicks after their nine-game winning streak, with four losses in the last five games starting to unwind that progress. <\/p>\n

It took more than four minutes before the Knicks managed their first field goal against a stout Thunder defense. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

They collected just 17 points in the first quarter and shot 31.8 percent from the field \u2014 while making only one 3-pointer \u2014 across the opening 12 minutes. <\/p>\n

And, during that time, Gilgeous-Alexander flashed the offensive instincts dotting his MVP r\u00e9sum\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Isaiah Hartenstein, making his return to the Garden, blocked Karl-Anthony Towns early in the first quarter and finished with six points, nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks and two steals. <\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shoots during the Thunder-Knicks game on Jan. 10, 2025. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

To a degree, it served as a reminder of the Knicks\u2019 past center depth \u2014 what Hartenstein called a \u201cluxury\u201d pregame \u2014 that they no longer possess. <\/p>\n

But Friday, that wouldn\u2019t have mattered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It got ugly, too. <\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns reacts during the Knicks-Thunder game on Jan. 10, 2025. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Aaron Wiggins soared in after the Thunder missed a 3-pointer to convert a put-back shot with no one on the Knicks even close. <\/p>\n

Then, with the shot clock winding down near the end of the first quarter, Joe chucked up a deep 3 from the Chase logo and watched as the result of a broken possession sank through the net. <\/p>\n

And after Brunson hit a free throw in the closing minutes of the first half, the Knicks were late getting down the court, and Cason Wallace perched in the corner and sank an open 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a lull where there\u2019s three or four bad possessions,\u201d Tom Thibodeau said, \u201cwell, they can go on a run during that, and that\u2019s what they did.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thibodeau\u2019s defense was torched for 70 points \u2014 to the tune of 60 percent shooting by Oklahoma City \u2014 in the first half, and his offense didn\u2019t possess the necessary firepower to respond, either. <\/p>\n

Isaiah Hartenstein reacts during the Thunder-Knicks game on Jan. 10, 2025. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

At one point during the third quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander tried to drive baseline against Towns, elevated for a shot anyway and hit the baseline jumper while fading out of bounds. <\/p>\n

He then picked Brunson\u2019s pocket to feed Joe in transition for an easy dunk before Hartenstein\u2019s steal ended with Gilgeous-Alexander feeding Jalen Williams for a layup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the shots aren\u2019t falling, that means you\u2019ve got to get stops,\u201d Josh Hart said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get stops. We didn\u2019t get out in transition. We didn\u2019t play fast. We didn\u2019t make shots. We didn\u2019t do really anything we were supposed to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Josh Hart reacts during the Knicks-Thunder game on Jan. 10, 2025. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson reacts to a call along side a referee during the third quarter in Friday\u2019s loss. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Twice in the last eight days, the Knicks stared down measuring sticks. <\/p>\n

Chances to show that the Thunder didn\u2019t pose too daunting of a challenge, that they could survive a rough 3-point stretch, an ugly four-game run, even the lingering holes on the roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Knicks didn\u2019t come close to quashing those concerns. <\/p>\n

Instead, they were greeted with recurring boos that only fueled them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Knicks\u2019 first Thunder test spiraled into a collapse, then this was a flop. A shellacking. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,949,288,1260,6,191,310,475,179,3966,3965,209,66,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-260760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-isaiah-hartenstein","10":"tag-jalen-brunson","11":"tag-mikal-bridges","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-oklahoma","15":"tag-oklahoma-city","16":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","17":"tag-oklahomacity","18":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","19":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115126740181155034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}