Julius Randle dribbling black uniform Grizzlies defender in shot
The Knicks’ loss to Memphis on Friday sets up another intriguing storyline for Sunday’s game at Brooklyn:
A Nets win on Sunday could do serious damage to New York’s bid for a spot in the NBA’s Play-In Tournament.
The Hawks and Hornets both won on Friday night. Atlanta faces a struggling Indiana team at home on Sunday.
It’s fair to assume the Hawks will take care of business against the Pacers.
So if the Knicks lose to Brooklyn on Sunday, they could be left 5.5 games out of the 10th spot in the Eastern Conference with 14 games to play.
That deficit isn’t insurmountable. But New York would need two teams out of the three-team group of Washington, Atlanta and Charlotte to crumble in the final four weeks of the regular season.
The young Hornets have the 11th toughest remaining schedule in the NBA, per tankathon.com.
New York and Washington are in the bottom third in terms of strength of schedule the rest of the way. Atlanta has the second-easiest schedule in the NBA from here on out.
The Knicks have two games remaining against the Hornets and two games remaining against Kristaps Porzingis and the Wizards. They have one game remaining against Atlanta. So New York can influence the race for 10th directly down the stretch.
But a loss to Brooklyn on Sunday makes New York’s difficult climb to 10th place significantly steeper.
On the other hand, a loss on Sunday could leave New York tied with New Orleans for the ninth-worst record in the NBA. At this point, it seems unlikely that the Knicks would finish with anything lower than the sixth-worst record in the league.
They are 5.5 games ahead of Sacramento, which currently owns the sixth-worst mark in the NBA.
STRONG ROAD TRIP
The Knicks looked like a team ready to play out of the string going into the All-Star break. They suffered three straight brutal losses before the break and were facing a tough schedule in late February/early March.
But Knicks players and coaches deserve credit for remaining competitive coming out of the break, particularly on this current road trip.
Story continues
The Knicks had won three straight prior to Friday’s loss at Memphis. They played a strong game against the Grizzlies, the No. 2 team in the Western Conference.
New York led by 15 with one minute to play in the third but couldn’t hold the lead due to a few careless turnovers and strong play from Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr.
There are no moral victories in pro sports but this Knicks team is still being evaluated both internally and externally. So Julius Randle’s strong play matters. He had 36 points, 12 rebounds and six assists against Memphis and got to the free-throw line 13 times. Randle went 11-for-27 from the field and had four turnovers, but he ran the floor hard and was aggressive all night.
When the Knicks were down five with under 2:30 to play, both Randle and RJ Barrett had ill-timed turnovers. This was another game where you wondered if the result would be different with a healthy Derrick Rose.
All of that aside, Randle has been playing at a higher level during the road trip.
In the five games prior to Friday, Randle averaged 26 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists while knocking down 43 percent of his three-point attempts.
Does this stretch change anything about how Randle is viewed by the Knicks? Does it change how Randle is viewed by other teams?
As we’ve noted in the past, several teams had interest in Randle prior to the Feb. 10 trade deadline. Some of the teams with interest in Randle felt that he could be effective in an altered role.
Apr 6, 2021; Miami, Florida, USA; Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (12) dribbles the ball against the Miami Heat during the second half at American Airlines Arena.
MORE MINUTES FOR TAYLOR IN INDY?
One byproduct of the Tyrese Haliburton trade? It created a path to more minutes for Terry Taylor. With Domantas Sabonis in Sacramento, Taylor, the undrafted rookie out of Austin Peay, averaged 18 minutes a game entering the weekend. He produced in those minutes, averaging seven points on nearly 70 percent shooting and 4.4 rebounds (two offensive).
Taylor, who didn’t play in the Pacers game on Friday due to Goga Bitadze’s return, is one of the most productive rookies in the 2022 class, according to one metric.
NBAMath notes that, entering this week, Taylor led all rookies in offensive points added. Entering the week, he led his class by a wide margin, per NBAMath. Taylor averaged 20.95 points added. The next rookie on the list? Scottie Barnes, with 7.95. Obviously, minutes factor into the stat but it tells you that Taylor, an undrafted rookie, has added a lot of value to the Pacers.
