Jalen Continues To Carry NY
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Samori Benjamin
When the Knicks were in Philadelphia on January 5th, they got their largest margin of victory on the road since 1972 with a 36-point win over the 76ers. On Thursday night the Knicks were back in Philadelphia looking to end a four-game losing streak that took them into the All-Star break. New York did just that. After a made three pointers by Tyrese Maxey 27 seconds into the first quarter, the Sixers never had the lead again. The Knicks led by eleven after the first 12 minutes of play and by halftime they had a 69-46 lead. The Sixers made it a dogfight in the second half outscoring the Knicks 35-22 in the third quarter leaving them down ten points going into the fourth. Still with several key guys injured, notably their top two forwards Julius Randle and OG Anunoby, the Knicks struggled at times to found points in the second half, but Philadelphia was without the league’s reigning MVP Joel Embiid so their offense came to a grind as well, and the Knicks were able to outscore Philadelphia 19-15 in the fourth to outlast them 110-96.
With the weight of the team on his shoulders and teams loaded up to stop him without Randle, guard Jalen Brunson was not his usual efficient self from the floor making just 5-18 shots but he did
go a perfect 11-11 from the free throw line and finished with 21 points to go along with 12 assists in 39 minutes. Josh Hart started at one forward position and played 44 minutes delivering 18 points and 12 rebounds. Precious Achiuwa was looked at as a throw in when he was part of the OG Anunoby trade, but he has played like a stud in the absence of OG and Randle. Achiuwa had 18 points and 11 rebounds in 39 minutes at the other forward spot. The leading scorer on the night for New York however was another forward who came off the bench and provided a much-needed boost in just his third game in a Knicks uniform. Bojan Bogdanovic was a perfect 6 for 6 from three-point range, five of which came in the first half. His lone three in the second half was huge, allowing the Knicks to take a deep breath as it put them up 13 with 1:53 left in the quarter as Philadelphia was rapidly cutting into the Knicks 23- point half time lead. “Bogie came in and gave us a big lift,” Knicks Head Coach Tom Thibodeau said of Bogdanovic after the game. “It gave us a big cushion. Bogie’s shots opened up the floor for us and I think that was a big factor in building up that lead. And we know right now we are undermanned and that we have got to make threes.”
The Knicks made 15 three-point shots compared to 10 by Philadelphia. “He’s a gifted scorer, we saw the post up too, he can get it off quick and he can put it on the floor, so if you close hard to him he has different finishes at the basket. He scores a lot of different ways and I think that’s a big asset for us and you can play him at small forward or power forward.”
After eight days off the Knicks responded well and host the NBA’s best team thus far this season the Boston Celtics who have an NBA best record of 44-12.
“Coming out of the break you’re headed down the stretch so there has to be urgency to this,” said Coach Thibs. “Every game counts the same so they’re all very important, we can’t look past anybody and we’re undermanned right now. Our starting front court is not there. So, we know we got to play hard as hell.”
