MEMPHIS \u2014 Technically, the Knicks fulfilled Josh Hart\u2019s \u201cmust-win\u201d decree.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t exactly the cakewalk it should\u2019ve been after a historically dominant first quarter, as the Knicks needed to battle through Wednesday\u2019s 130-119 victory over the tanktastic Grizzlies.<\/p>\n
Without a resting Jalen Brunson, the Knicks tied a franchise record with 48 points in the opening quarter. <\/p>\n
OG Anunoby drives on Walter Clayton Jr. in the second half of the Knicks\u2019 130-119 win over the Grizzlies on April 1, 2026 in Memphis. AP<\/p>\n
It left the impression they were ready to breeze past Memphis, but they cooled off considerably in the second half \u2014 allowing the lead to dwindle to three in the third quarter \u2014 and coach Mike Brown was forced to run his starters until the final buzzer.<\/p>\n
OG Anunoby led the way with 25 points and 13 boards. <\/p>\n
Mikal Bridges added 24 points. Karl-Anthony Towns collected his fourth career triple-double with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, but also committed seven turnovers and was benched by Brown for a big chunk of the second half.<\/p>\n
So the effort was far from perfect, but the baseline of a victory was achieved after a three-game losing streak and a humiliating defeat a day prior in Houston.<\/p>\n
Immediately after that loss to the Rockets, Hart, the team\u2019s leader and spokesman, declared the Memphis matchup a \u201cmust-win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knicks responded exquisitely from tipoff with that powerful first quarter.<\/p>\n
Mikal Bridges, who scored 24 points, goes up for a layup during the Knicks\u2019 win over the Grizzlies. Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Everybody ate. In the opening 12 minutes, the Knicks shot a ridiculous 81 percent \u2014 going 5-for-5 from deep \u2014 while collecting 14 assists. <\/p>\n
Nine Knicks scored in the first quarter. Six of them had at least five points.<\/p>\n
They led by 18 after that opening period, then by 17 at the break. <\/p>\n
The Grizzlies launched their comeback in the third quarter, and Anunoby carried the Knicks to victory with 17 points in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 20 points to go along with 11 rebounds and 11 assists, goes up for a layup during the Knicks\u2019 win over the Grizzlies. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
It was an impressive offensive performance across the board, which will inevitably lead to pundit chatter that the Knicks play faster and freer without Brunson.<\/p>\n
But context matters. <\/p>\n
The Knicks (49-28) were playing the miserable Grizzlies (25-51), who are among the NBA\u2019s preeminent tankers and deployed a lineup of G-Leaguers.<\/p>\n
Ja Morant, Zach Edey, Santi Aldama, Ty Jerome, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jaylen Wells were all out with injuries. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Brandon Clarke, who was also an injury DNP, was reportedly arrested in Arkansas on Wednesday on charges of trafficking a controlled substance.<\/p>\n
The Grizzlies starters included two rookies (Cedric Coward, Javon Small), two former second-round picks (GG Jackson and Cam Spencer) and a player who started on a two-way contract this season (Olivier-Maxence Prosper). <\/p>\n
They also had three players in the rotation Wednesday on 10-day contracts.<\/p>\n
It represented their 15th loss in their last 17 games.<\/p>\n
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The Knicks? They\u2019re still third in the East \u2014 2 \u00bd games behind the Celtics for No. 2 and 1 \u00bd games clear of the Cavaliers at No. 4.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve also won 10 straight against teams with losing records. <\/p>\n
They\u2019ve dropped five straight to opponents with winning records, including that blowout Tuesday in Houston that had Hart sounding alarms in the postgame locker room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going in the right direction,\u201d said Hart, who had just five points Wednesday in 25 minutes. \u201cWe\u2019re not trending upwards. So we got to figure it out. \u2026 Got another one (on Wednesday in Memphis). That\u2019s a must-win for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown appreciated the sense of urgency. His team responded well \u2014 but only in the bookends of a victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m OK if our players have that attitude, for sure. You try to manufacture pressure on yourself, especially during the regular season. I said this back during our NBA Cup run, it was a good run because it helped us manufacture pressure during that time of the year when you\u2019re just playing games and you don\u2019t have the pressure of, \u2018OK, we lose and we\u2019re out.\u2019 So it\u2019s good to have that mindset. I don\u2019t mind that our players have that mindset.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEMPHIS \u2014 Technically, the Knicks fulfilled Josh Hart\u2019s \u201cmust-win\u201d decree. But it wasn\u2019t exactly the cakewalk it should\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,288,563,304,177,1260,6,1136,191,3810,3806,741,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-693188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jalen-brunson","10":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","11":"tag-knicks","12":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","13":"tag-mikal-bridges","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-knicks","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkknicks","19":"tag-og-anunoby","20":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116333016744573531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693188","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=693188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}