The Knicks best players against the Pacers
The Kicks are simply a more talented team than the Indiana Pacers. It’s preseason, these games are played for preparation, integration and evaluation. The first two are coming along smoothly, so we shall concentrate on evaluation in this game.
Like coach Thibs, we will start with Cam Reddish who played 22 minutes. The positive was Cam’s defense. His on ball D was energetic and effective. He guarded Halliburton and Duarte, and made them pass the ball. With the ball in his hands, Reddish made poor decisions and took bad shots. Since he knows he is on thin ice, Cam may have just been forcing his game. In these first two games, Cam Reddish has not looked lke a rotation caliber player.
RJ Barrett has a very nice stroke from three and he was 4-7 from deep and 2 – 2 from the stripe. He led the Knicks with 27 mins. HRJ’s woes inside the arc continue as he was 2 – 8. The same looping drives to his left are being better defended. With his outside shot falling, direct lanes to the basket should open up for RJ.
Barrett failed to elevate sufficiently and his attempted slam was blocked by the rim. His defense was nothing special as Duarte and Halliburton either missed or made open threes. As usual, Thibs team clogged the lane and Mitch was again a monster inside.
IQ had another quality game, 3 assists to one TO while scoring 17 pts in 19 min, 3 of 6 from deep. The refs are not calling Trae Young type fouls, so Quick should concentrate on making his floaters instead of leaning into defenders in an attempt to draw fouls. He was 2 of 6 inside the arc.
Jalen Brunson lived in the lane on offense. He shot poorly, 4 of 12. Perhaps tired legs contributed to his fade away J missing the mark. But Jalen’s penetration led to open threes for Barrett and Randle in the first period.
The Knicks dominated the box score with their foul shooting 26 of 27 for 96%. The rest of the stats are rather even, especially in a 17 point win.