It was also Knicks Head Coach Tom Thibodeau’s birthday as the team played their annual Martin Luther, Jr matinee game.
The Knicks tried to keep up with the Hornets who took the lead early and played aggressively throughout the game.
“The challenge is you have to be ready to play, you have to come in and understand what goes into winning,” said the second year coach following the loss. “Defend, rebound, keep the turnovers down. If we do that, we’ll be in a position to win.”
Charlotte were ahead seven points about two and a half minutes into the game, but the Knicks came back and were ahead 12-11 after a driving dunk by Center Mitchell Robinson with 7:02 minutes remaining in the first quarter. That was New York’s only lead during the game. The Knicks trailed the Hornets 34-23 at the end of the first quarter.
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“I think we kind of started off slow and had to wake up early in the game,” Robinson said. “We just weren’t ready.”
New York started to close the gap in the second quarter as they gained more energy. Some of the life came from Forward Obi Toppin, who converted an alley-oop dunk from guard Immanuel Quickley. Knicks were only five points behind at that point. However, they fell behind and trailed 62-44 at half time.
The Knicks had trouble gaining momentum to start the second half of the game. New York trailed by double digits the entire third quarter with 23 points being the largest gap.
LaMelo Ball, one of the Hornets top scorers did not play. However, Forward Miles Bridges led the Hornets with a career high of 38 points. He had 12 rebounds and five assists.
“He was awesome tonight,” said Hornets Head Coach James Borrego. “High level performance, his confidence. The spirit he played with led us to this victory.
RJ Barrett and Julius Randle led the Knicks with 18 points each. Barrett had five assists and 12 rebounds. Randle had three assists and 10 rebounds.
