A sloppy performance on both ends of the floor translated to a third straight loss for the Knicks as the Orlando Magic took down a scrappy 103-94 win Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
“They played a good game and we played a low-energy game, and we fell short.” said head coach Tom Thibodeau, before adding, “I don’t want to say a lack of effort because guys were trying, but we played low-energy and we couldn’t get anything going.
“… We gotta make it go our way and sometimes you just gotta dig down and find a way to win the game and we fell short in that area today.”
New York, playing without Karl-Anthony Towns, struggled to generate easy offense after the first quarter (going just 4-for-22 from behind the arc) and couldn’t translate missed Orlando shots into fastbreak points (with just eight all night). Orlando, one of the better teams at three-point defense, held the Knicks to just six attempts in the second half, attempting 13 fewer than their average.
It was a tough night for Jalen Brunson as he went 8-for-21 from the floor for 24 points and four assists for a minus-3 before he fouled out in the game’s final moments.
Mikal Bridges started strong and closed well, scoring 24 (10-for-20) with five rebounds and two assists, but he went 1-for-7 from deep and was a minus-1 as the Knicks fell to 24-13 on the season. The Magic, playing without their four leading scorers, improved to 22-16.
Miles McBride missed his fourth straight game and New York’s three-man bench combined to score 18 points on 7-for-16 shooting in his absence. Orlando added 50 from its bench.
“When you’re shorthanded you gotta play hard, your margin of error is tight,” Thibodeau said.
Here are the takeaways…
– The Knicks’ offense – even with the less offensively adept Jericho Sims in at center for Towns – didn’t have to expend much effort to find good looks in the early goings against the Magic with Bridges scoring four quick points and owning a seven-point edge less than halfway into the first.
Bridges showed his assertiveness on the offensive end, scoring nine points on 4-for-6 shooting with three rebounds. Josh Hart added seven (3-for-3) with four rebounds, but Brunson started cold, missing his first five attempts before converting on his next three shots (two of which were and-1s) to give him eight for the quarter along with three assists for a four-point lead.
– When the Knicks went smaller with Precious Achiuwa at center, Orlando’s Jonathan Isaac capitalized with six rebounds (four offensive) and eight points off the bench in 11 minutes which helped give the Magic their first lead at 42-41 at the 7:17 mark of the second quarter.
And the rhythm that was there on the offensive side of things for the Knicks in the first period was absent in the second as Brunson was on the bench for the first eight minutes of the quarter. Orlando used a late 9-2 run to force a Thibodeau timeout with New York down three. The visitors were 10-for-16 from the floor (63 percent) with the home side 4-for-14 (29 percent).
A corner three gave the Magic a one-point halftime lead as the Knicks’ offense went ice cold in the second, going 1-for-10 from behind the arc in the quarter.
– While neither team shot the ball particularly well, the Magic — playing the second game of a back-to-back — managed to be just a bit better at times, starting the third quarter 5-for-8 as the Knicks went 3-for-9 as the Orlando lead hit seven.
Sims, who had been apprehensive with the ball in his hands all night, started a fastbreak that led to a Bridges layup and a 6-0 run to make it a two-point game and grabbed a steal that could have leveled the score with two minutes left but the Knicks’ seventh turnover translated to a Magic corner three and a Brunson offensive foul led to another Magic three and that good spurt was erased.
New York was held to just 17 points in the third going 8-for-20 from the field and entered the final stanza down 75-68, the lowest point total through three quarters for the Knicks on the season.
– Monday night’s game in a nutshell: Brunson, an 82 percent shooter from the free throw line opened the fourth with a chance to cut the lead to five, but missed a pair of attempts clanking them off the back iron.
Bridges, who lost the scoring impetus a bit after a solid first, added six quick points in the fourth, but the Magic continued to find answers taking the lead to 10 with six minutes to play.
After back-to-back baskets, Thibs showed his worth with a challenge on a Hart foul that gave New York a chance to trim the Magic’s six-point lead, but a missed bucket was answered by a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope three.
– Hart finished with 15 points (5-for-9), 14 rebounds, two assists and two steals, but was a minus-8 in 42 minutes. Achiuwa added 10 off the bench (5-for-6) but was a minus-14 in 22 minutes. Sims played 29 minutes and was a minus-4 while scoring four points on a pair of dunks to go along with 10 rebounds and two assists.
– For Orlando, Cole Anthony led them with 24 points (9-for-18), seven rebounds and four assists with Caldwell-Pope adding 15 (6-for-10). But the bench stars of Wendell Carter Jr., knocking down 8 of 11 from the floor for 19 in 26 minutes, and Isaac, finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds in 25 minutes, were the difference.
Highlight
What’s next
The Knicks’ five-game homestand continues with the second installment on Wednesday night against the Toronto Raptors. Tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
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