Leonard, Clippers survived Quickley’s heroism

Leonard, Clippers survived Quickley’s heroism

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Immanuel Quickley scored 25 points off the bench, but the Knicks and their defense were no match for the Clippers’ attack.

The Los Angeles Clippers (16-5) roared back to beat the New York Knicks (9-12) after an early start on the east coast forced the west coast-based team to wake up from their sleep. The best three-point pitching team in the league appeared to end the Knicks after an uncomfortably close margin for most of the game, ending at 129-115.

Kawhi Leonard, twice the NBA Finals MVP, had a masterful performance at Madison Square Garden, scoring 28 points out of 8 out of 15 pitches along with 11 out of 11 on the free throw line. Leonard had several buckets of punishment to end the Knicks’ mini-responses.

After the Knicks duo Julius Randle and RJ Barrett took the team to a negative point in the first half, debutant guard Immanuel Quickley took the time off in the second half, turning a microwave in the fourth period to keep New York away attack. Quickley scored 14 points in the second half, including several floats that seem to magnetically find the bottom of the arc.

The Clippers, entering the game today, were shooting 41.4% from a three-point gap, according to NBA.com, and the Knicks had no answer for multi-role players stretching the court and hurting New York from bottom. Los Angeles ended with 17 of 38 three-point shots (44.7%), including important looks from greats like Serge Ibaka and ex-Knicks Marcus Morris Sr. (who learned a technique).

Despite the outstanding performances of Randle (a double-double of 27 points and five assists) and Barrett (23 points in 14 shots, 5 of 6 from the free-throw line), the Knicks were unable to resist Tyronn Lue’s violent attack, which marked 66 points in the first half and 101 points in three quarters. The Clippers have recorded the most points as a Knicks opponent so far this season, 129 (formerly: Indiana Pacers, 121 on opening night).

Idols for rivals

Immanuel Quickley and his self-proclaimed The idol Lou Williams had a kind of bench duel in the first half. The Knicks rookie scored 10 points in 11 minutes of the first half, throwing 3 out of 5, with his only two mistakes in long-range attempts. Williams, in turn, demonstrated his clever and skillful game by winning the Knicks defense by nine points from five shots and three assists.

At a point close to consecutive possessions, Quickley showed his patent-pending float followed by a Williams float.

Quickley continued to ease his scoring strokes early in his NBA career, eventually ending up with 25 points in 27 minutes off the bench (playing six minutes more than Elfrid Payton with the continuing controversy of getting on everyone’s mind). Quickley joined Randle and Barrett as three Knicks to finish with more than 20 points. Payton was the only other two-digit Knick (10).

Perimeter game punishment

Large clippers (including stretch four Marcus Morris) hurt the Knicks on Sunday with three-point shots. This was largely due to the preference of Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson in maintaining the paint. Late closings led to the opening of three-point looks by Serge Ibaka, Patrick Patterson – in just his first game and eighth game this season – and Morris. (Strangely, Randle converted to his first four triples before losing one.)

Ibaka, Patterson and Morris finished with nine three points in 13 attempts – a devastating statistic given the combination of Leonard and Paul George to shoot 2 of 11 in the background. A lot of that, of course, was due to Leonard’s penetration and extra attention from the Knicks aid advocates, allowing wide stretched eyes when Randle and Mitchell Robinson (nine points, six rebounds, one block) failed to respect the collective of the Clippers out shot.

Plastic workbench

We need to talk about Austin Rivers, Obi Toppin and the Knicks bank. While Tom Thibodeau maintains a short rotation (we usually see eight or nine players recording minutes; Sunday was 10) and therefore great minutes to start, there were characteristically terrible stretches with the bank unit. Rivers, facing his former club, scored 1 out of 4 for four points and two assists, while rookie striker Obi Toppin, the eighth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, scored 0 to 2.

In addition, with Nerlens Noel eliminated on Sunday, Taj Gibson had his first extended minutes back with the Knicks, and he fought. Quickley was the only positive result that came out of the pine, and the Kentucky product was the third in more minutes.

We saw more mixing and matching with the bench and the Thibodeau beginners today, with Alec Burks (3 on 8 of the field for seven points) playing an extended stretch with the beginners less Payton and more Quickley.

The end result is that there must be a more consistent effort by the bank. Kevin Knox was a DNP-CD on Sunday and the non-beginners hit 3 out of 16 out of three, sinking the team sometimes without Randle and Barrett in the game.

Miscellaneous Notes

  • Julius Randle is an All-Star. We saw the kind of pictures that Kawhi Leonard took and took; Randle was adopting similar outrageous movements and looks.
  • RJ Barrett remains Mr. Janeiro (registered trademark: Sam DiGiovanni). In 16 games in January, Barrett averaged 18.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists, throwing 47.9% of the field, 35.1% of three and 75.0% of the throw line free.
  • I have no idea what happened to Knox tonight, with respect to the aforementioned DNP. The Knicks could have used their three-point shot against Los Angeles.
  • Marcus Morris was awake at the last minute of the game, of course.
  • Mitchell Robinson: two fouls in 30 minutes. It remains a positive trend towards the center of the third year.

The Knicks are preparing for two straight games with the Chicago Bulls, starting tomorrow with a day off between fights. Chicago is coming out of a disheartening bell by Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers. Go check if you don’t have it if you want to smile.

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»READ: Untie Julius Randle from RJ Barrett to unlock the guard’s attack?

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