A landmark victory for the Knicks

Except they’ve won their sixth straight to keep pace with the Celtics they’re with they share 2nd place in the Eastern Conferencedeluded Knicks road against the Lakers. That’s a collective win with six players scoring 10 or more points, and role players who have taken over perfectly from stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.

“That’s what we’re capable of.” chains Josh Hart. “We have great bench depth, guys who are capable of hitting their own shots, creating for others. It’s not always going to be JB or KAT’s night, but we have enough players capable of scoring. It shows that we don’t have to force anything.”

Although it is difficult to categorize him as a “role player”, the most outstanding was OG Anunoby with his 25 points, and it was he who, with an offensive rebound turned into a dunk, broke the match in “money time” and gave New York a 12-point lead.

On his side, Landry Shamet justifies the confidence of Mike Brown with 23 points, while Hart gives Hart with 20 points and a nice 3 of 4 three-pointers. Enough to largely offset the Brunson-Towns tandem’s 23 cumulative points.

“When the shots don’t go in, you have to influence another area,” Brunson explained.author of 13 assists. “I saw two defenders on me a lot, so I was just trying to make the right choice at the right time. We were getting good shots. You have to adjust to the opposing defense. Guys were shooting. The ball circulation was great.”

The defense is ongoing

Another positive element, defense. It’s the fifth time in six games that the Knicks have held an opponent to 100 points or less.

In the second half, we implemented the game plan better. like Mike Brown. “The Lakers only scored 44 points after halftime, which was huge for us. You know, in the first half, we didn’t defend as well as we should have. There was a lack of respect for the game plan, and our physical impact was not up to par. The baseliner was out of position defensively, and that was a telltale sign: five turnovers and we only recovered one in the second quarter!”

For the Knicks coach, this “50/50 ball” statistic is really revealing. “What I said to the players is that this difference in turnovers is a real indicator of where we were defensively. And to the credit of the players, there were seven turnovers in the second half … and we won them all. To me, it clearly shows that the difference in the match was made by paying attention to the details of the game plan and the intensity that we put in when it was necessary.”