It might be time for Mike Brown to rethink one strategy.
It’s one he has utilized all year, but it’s come to hurt the Knicks in both games of the series.
Brown prefers to sit both Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns for the starts of the second and fourth quarters rather than stagger them and have one on the court. The lineup he uses instead — with Miles McBride, Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson and Mitchell Robinson on the floor — struggled in the Knicks’ 107-106 Game 2 loss to the Hawks on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
“We’ve played that lineup quite a bit at the end of the season,” Brown said. “That lineup’s been pretty good. We weren’t good tonight and we turned the ball over a few too many times during that period. But we had opportunities where our starters were in, and we were up eight to 10 [points] and Atlanta closed it. So I wouldn’t just say that specific lineup caused it.”
After the Knicks took a nine-point lead into the second quarter, the Hawks opened the second quarter on a 13-3 run — with Brunson and Towns on the bench — to take the lead. The Knicks bench — particularly Shamet — was ineffective. So much so that Brown subbed Jose Alvarado — who seemed to be out of the playoff rotation — into the game for Shamet. Knicks starters reestablished the seven-point lead by halftime.
In the fourth quarter, it was Alvarado on the floor — instead of Shamet — along with McBride and Clarkson to start the quarter. They began the quarter up 12. By the time Brunson and Towns subbed back in with 7:56 left in the game, they led by nine.
Then, with the starters on the floor, came the collapse.
“We trust any one of our guys in this locker room to be in that game at any time,” Towns said of sitting at the same time as Brunson. “What I do know is the time we were off the court wasn’t when we lost.”
The draft pick is set.
The Knicks will have the No. 24 pick in this year’s draft. Six teams with identical records had their ties broken by random drawing Monday, conducted by the NBA.
The Knicks (53-29) won their tiebreaker over the Lakers.
OG Anunoby finished 10th in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
Earlier this month, he expressed his belief that he should win the award. But that finish should give him a good shot at making one of the All-Defensive teams, another honor for which he has vouched for himself.
