The Knicks survived a scare on Tuesday night at home against a bad injury depleted Memphis Grizzles team and suffered another injury of their own to a key player in the process. New York led by as many as 28 points with under a minute to go in the third quarter and found themselves up just four points with 2:05 left in the game and their star point guard Jalen Brunson in the locker room after turning his ankle with a little under six minutes remaining in the game. Brunson’s college teammate and now starting backcourt mate Donte DiVincenzo hit a 27-foot three point shot with 1:44 remaining to put the Knicks up 116-109.
A defensive stop on the other end and a tip-in dunk by forward Precious Achiuwa on the Knicks next possession gave New York a 118-109 lead with 1:23 remaining. That was all the cushion the Knicks needed and they won by the final score of 123-113. “The second half our defense wasn’t very good,” Knicks Head Coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “They shot threes, we didn’t challenge. But I want to say we built a big lead. We didn’t close it out as well as we should have. Getting a win is the most important thing. Just find a way to win.”
With Brunson going down in the final quarter DiVincenzo ended up scoring a game high 32 points on 12-18 shooting. Before turning his ankle Brunson had 27 points on 11-21 from the field with 8 assists, and three steals. “Playing with him for so long and knowing, I asked him ‘you good?’ and he’s like ‘I’m good’ and I didn’t ask anything after that,” DiVincenzo said in the Knicks locker room regarding the Brunson’s ankle injury. “I don’t worry about Jalen at all. He’s one of the toughest guys in the league. I’m not worried.”
The Memphis Grizzles had 10 players out with injury and the names in their lineup had many in the Garden crowd wondering who they were watching. The Knicks will have their hands full as they play Thursday night at home against Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks. The Knicks are 16-3 since New Year’s Day with one of the three losses coming by 14 points against Dallas on January 11th. A game where Kyrie Irving had 44 points and 10 assists, with superstar Luka Doncic missing the game due to injury. Both are expected to play on Thursday. With Julius Randle and OG Anunoby both missing their fifth straight game, the Knicks cannot afford to be without Brunson Thursday against his former team. If they are it could be an ugly night at the Garden.
