Well, no one can say it didn’t live up to the billing.
The Knicks and Thunder played a playoff-caliber game Friday night in Oklahoma City, but despite a valiant effort from New York, — the Knicks entered the fourth quarter with an eight-point lead — the best team in the Western Conference used their top defense to complete the comeback and win.
So, what happened?
OKC’s defense held the Knicks to just 9 of 22 shooting (41 percent) including 1-for-9 from three, while New York’s defense could not hold down the Thunder. OKC shot 70 percent (14 of 20) in the final quarter, including 6-for-8 from beyond the arc.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau felt the game came down to just a few plays down the stretch.
“Two or three scramble plays, where they got to the loose ball and then converted into threes,” Thibodeau said after the game. “So the last part of the defense has to be the strongest and that was probably the biggest thing. It was a hard-fought game.”
Thibodeau pointed to the Thunder’s 23 fast-break points — against the Knicks’ 10 — as a big factor in the loss as well. OKC also had 18 points off of 12 Knicks turnovers.
“It’s a really good team,” Mikal Bridges said of the Thunder. “We just fought hard and they just had an extra push at the end and we were there and then they made that run in the fourth. They got open looks, got out in transition, got some 50-50 balls but too many open looks.”
“We just didn’t execute, we didn’t execute how we should’ve,” Josh Hart said. “When they blitzed we got to get out in space and space the court and then pick them apart that way. We just didn’t execute down the stretch in that fourth. And then we had some big plays that didn’t go our way.”
Aaron Wiggins, the 26-year-old guard who came into Friday’s game averaging less than nine points a game, was the benefactor of those open shots. In the final frame, Wiggins was a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor making all four three-pointers he attempted.
Then, there was the offensive rebound and save by former Knick Isaiah Hartenstein late in the fourth.
Hartenstein hustled to get an air ball from his Thunder teammate just before it went out of bounds and kicked it out to Isaiah Joe who knocked down a three, his lone made shot of the night.
“Sometimes it doesn’t [go your way], you gotta make it go your way,” Thibodeau said of OKC winning the scramble plays. “You gotta got to find a way to go get [the loose balls].”
New York entered Friday’s game on a nine-game winning streak with the Thunder winning 13 straight. It was the fourth time in NBA history that two teams met with winning streaks of nine-plus games.
And while OKC continues their streak to a franchise-tying 14th straight game, the Knicks will have to flush this game away as they travel to Chicago to take on the Bulls on Saturday night.
To pick up a split in the second game of their back-to-back, the Knicks will need their bench to shoulder some of the load on both ends of the floor. Without Miles McBride for the second consecutive game, the Knicks bench — Precious Achiuwa, Landry Shamet and Cam Payne — had just five points and were a combined minus-seven on the floor on Friday.
The Thunder, in contrast, received 43 points off the bench from five players including 19 from Wiggins.
“We had an eight-point lead going into the fourth, and the intensity of the fourth quarter is different,” Thibodeau said of his use of the bench. “So we got to be ready for that and we fell short tonight but our bench is more than capable, our starters are more than capable.
“So, we win together, we lose together and then we just gotta refocus and fix what we need to fix and be ready to go to tomorrow night.”
The Knicks will get another shot at OKC when they host the Thunder next Friday night at The Garden.
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