Knicks close out four-game road trip with wire-to-wire win over Grizzlies
The Knicks salvaged their four-game road trip with a convincing 130-119 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night to snap a three-game losing streak. Here are the takeaways... -- Without top scoring threat Jalen Brunson in the game due to right ankle soreness, New York needed its other players to step up and make some shots and make shots they did.
It was an all-out team effort in the first quarter with the Knicks putting up 48 points in the opening 12 minutes of the game, the most points they've scored in any quarter this season. -- Nine players saw the court in the first quarter and all nine made at least one field goal, including Ariel Hukporti, who saw extended minutes for the first time since March 13 against the Indiana Pacers. Mikal Bridges led the way by going 3-for-3 from the field and drilling his only three-point attempt.
But it wasn't just Bridges as New York shot 81 percent from the field in the first and 100 percent from downtown (5-for-5). They also didn't miss from the free-throw line, going 9-for-9. -- Overall, the Knicks missed just four shots in the opening frame and were getting anything they wanted offensively.
Still, it wasn’t their best defensive effort as they allowed the Grizzlies to score 30 points. -- The second quarter saw more of the same as Bridges continued his scoring barrage with Karl-Anthony Towns also heavily involved. New York wasn't able to keep up its first-quarter field-goal percentage in the second, but it still shot 71 percent from the field (70 percent from three) going into halftime and still didn't miss from the charity stripe (14-for-14).
Along with the starters, it also got some nice contributions from Tyler Kolek and Landry Shamet . -- Given their ridiculous offensive production, the Knicks outrebounded Memphis 21-6 at the break and had more offensive rebounds (eight) than the Grizzlies had total rebounds. Regardless, Memphis shot a more than respectable 56 percent from the field in the first half and had 62 points at halftime, even outscoring New York 32-31 in the second quarter.