DENVER – Bones Hyland, a brash Nuggets rookie, cutback his dribble at the top of the key and sent Kemba Walker tumbling to the court. The four-time All-Star fell embarrassingly into the paint.
Hyland paused beyond the 3-point line, admiring his work, and buried his shot. He stared at Walker. Then Hyland went too far and pointed at Walker, whose butt was planted on the hardwood.
Complete and utter disrespect.
This was a four-time All-Star getting humiliated by a 21-year-old nobody in the second quarter. And yet, the Knicks didn’t respond. They continued to allow basket after basket, performing meekly in a defeat that reiterated why the Knicks have had trouble trading their contracts.
Remember all that fight and commitment the Knicks exhibited under Tom Thibodeau last season? It has officially disappeared. Adding injury to insult, RJ Barrett came up lame in the final minute of the 132-115 defeat, with coach Thibodeau inexplicably playing his young star in garbage time.
The Knicks allowed 83 points in the first half against the Nuggets, which was one short of the franchise record for defensive futility at the break. They conceded Tuesday until a way-too-little, way-too-late comeback in the fourth quarter. They have lost four in a row and 10 of their last 12. They’re 24-31 and 12th in a stacked Eastern Conference.
It was, in many ways, a predictable result. The Nuggets (30-24) have the league’s reigning MVP, Nikola Jokic, and a surging roster that smacked around the Nets two days earlier. Jokic finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, joining four other teammates who scored at least 19 points.
The Nuggets led by 27 in the first half and never looked back. The Knicks bench, once the guiding light of some early success this season, was a dump, particularly Immanuel Quickley, who missed all four of his 3-point attempts, and Cam Reddish, who is finally getting a chance with Quentin Grimes injured and is doing nothing with it.
Walker rose up from the court to score just two points on 1-of-6 shooting, not exactly increasing his trade value. Julius Randle played well with 28 points, and Evan Fournier hit shots. But the defense, Thibodeau’s calling card, wilted in the Mile High City.
To be fair, the Knicks were operating Tuesday at a deficit. Not only were they playing on the second night of a back-to-back, they faced the league’s MVP without their top centers.
Mitchell Robinson (sore back) and Nerlens Noel (sore knee) were out after both played in Monday’s loss to the Jazz. It left the Knicks with only Taj Gibson and Jericho Sims, two centers who combined for seven minutes in the previous give games. Predictably, they struggled to stop Jokic.
“We look to establish Nikola early anyways, but it’ll be even more of a heightened awareness for us knowing they’re a little bit thin in their frontcourt,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone acknowledged.
Thibodeau gushed over Jokic, who the Knicks passed over in the second round of the 2014 draft by picking Cleanthony Early at 34th overall (Jokic went 41st). That was a Phil Jackson mistake. But the 2022 summer disaster is all on Leon Rose, who didn’t travel with the team to Denver so he could navigate the trade deadline.
“Even if you have everyone he’s an MVP-type player, so he poses so many problems,” Thibodeau said. “There’s probably no other player that stretches the floor in the way that he does in terms of that he really plays the point as a center. He has great vision, can throw the ball full court, diagonal pass, stretch you out. If anyone’s jogging he’s going to make you pay for that. If you have a body position mistake on a cut he’ll make you pay for that. He’s a terrific player, all-around player.”
Jokic went from a 27-point triple-double against the Nets to hitting cruise control against the Knicks. A demolition of NYC in the Rocky Mountains. The Knicks, meanwhile, just piled a loss on another loss.
