In their never-ending quest to make life more difficult than it needs to be, the New York Knicks are turning first quarters into their own personal porta-potty they use exclusively for dropping deuces.<\/p>\n
Prior to the All-Star break, the Knicks were outsourcing opponents by 6.6 points per 100 possessions in the opening 12 minutes\u2014the league\u2019s seventh-best mark<\/a>. Following their midseason break, though, they are getting pummeled in the first frame. Their minus-10 net rating ranks 26th<\/a>, positioning them in front of only teams going absolutely nowhere: Brooklyn Nets (30th), Washington Wizards (29th), Dallas Mavericks (28th), and Milwaukee Bucks (27th).<\/p>\n It\u2019s an interesting strategy by the Knicks. We\u2019ll have to see how it works out for them. My hunch is it won\u2019t end well. Especially as the dumpster fires get even worse, or more inexplicable.<\/p>\n The Knicks are getting outclassed by inferior teams<\/p>\n Downgrading this first-quarter trend from \u201calarming\u201d to \u201cShut up and blog about something else, turd!\u201d is tempting when looking at New York\u2019s post-All-Star record. Winning 11 of 16 games, while navigating injuries to Deuce McBride and Josh Hart, is better than solid.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, just because the Knicks are able to climb out of holes they shouldn\u2019t have dug in the first place doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s okay. That\u2019s particularly true when their struggles are getting worse, and aren\u2019t exactly coming against a murderer\u2019s row of opponents.<\/p>\n Over the past seven games, New York has been getting blasted by 24.6 points per 100 possessions in first quarters, a net rating that ranks 27th<\/a>. During this time, the Knicks have faced approximately 1.5 real teams. In order: Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Utah Jazz, Indiana Pacers, Golden State Warriors, Pacers again, and Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n The Knicks\u2019 last five games are the most inexcusable. Golden State didn\u2019t have Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler, De\u2019Anthony Melton, Al Horford, or Kristaps Porzingis\u2014and still outscored New York by 14 in the opening frame. Meanwhile, Utah, Indiana, and Brooklyn are all actively attempting to lose. Winning only two of those first quarters (both against the Pacers) is a special kind of frustrating.<\/p>\n New York\u2019s solution is irritating, too<\/p>\n Problems such as this are easier to dissect when there\u2019s a solution beyond \u201cJust play better, dudes.\u201d Unfortunately, the Knicks are in make-more-shots, get-more-stops, stop-messing-around-dammit territory.<\/p>\n Head coach Mike Brown has already slammed them for their low energy out of the gate<\/a>. When asked to self-diagnose the first-quarter issues, players have responded with some variation<\/a> of the \u201cJust play better\u201d trope. These are definitely things fans want to hear about a title contender still jockeying for postseason positioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some will point toward the need for a starting-lineup change. That\u2019s fair. The Knicks\u2019 preferred starters have been outscored by 34 points in 72 first-quarter minutes (minus-18 net rating) since the All-Star break. They were a plus-15 points in 91 minutes (7.3 net rating) pre-All-Star break.<\/p>\n Yet, this lineup has appeared in just one of the past five games. New York\u2019s issue clearly goes beyond the \u201cDemote Josh Hart and\/or Mikal Bridges\u201d discourse. Maybe that\u2019s a good thing. It means the Knicks really just need to hit the play-better button.\u00a0<\/p>\n They just better smash it soon. Right now, they are playing with their food. Once the postseason rolls around, if this keeps up, it\u2019ll be the Knicks who become someone else\u2019s meal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In their never-ending quest to make life more difficult than it needs to be, the New York Knicks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,113,126,3866,6,114],"class_list":{"0":"post-673008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana","10":"tag-indiana-pacers","11":"tag-indianapacers","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-pacers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116274142945072851","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673008","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=673008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}