The Knicks are making it look routine. Making it look easy.
And, more and more, making it look like they’re an elite team. The most intriguing part is they likely haven’t even hit their ceiling yet. Far from it, they declare.
Tuesday marked an early-season landmark for them, playing their tenth game of the year. And besides a brief three-game blip, they have to like the early returns on Mike Brown’s tenure.
They breezed past the Grizzlies 133-120 at Madison Square Garden to extend their winning streak to five games.
They are now a perfect 7-0 at MSG, their best home start since 2012-13. They are second in the Eastern Conference, behind only the 9-2 Pistons — whom they eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last year.
That 2012-13 Knicks side started 10-0 at home. The Knicks have two more games on this home stand before hitting the road, so they could bring themselves within touching distance of that milestone.
“Our fans are fantastic,” Brown said. “Playing here at MSG, playing at home, there’s no better place to play for a group. And we fed off the energy of being here, and we figured it out. We’ve strung some games together because we played the right way on both ends of the floor for a little closer to 48 minutes than our previous games.”
The Grizzlies (4-8) have struggled this year but are no slouches, either. They were a playoff team last year and have plenty of star power in Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., but the Knicks made them look uncompetitive. Even worse, the Knicks broke their spirit and made it look like they quit on their coach, Tuomas Iisalo, for large stretches.
The game was tied 30-30 with just over two minutes left in the first quarter. The Knicks proceeded to rip off a 19-0 run to take a 49-30 lead just under two minutes into the second quarter.
The Grizzlies never got within single digits the rest of the way. They briefly cut their deficit to 10 in the fourth quarter, but it was far too little, too late.
The Knicks surpassed 40 points in a quarter once more — in the first quarter — on Tuesday. For the season, they have scored 40 or more points in a quarter seven times — last season, they only accomplished that feat 14 times.
They poured in 77 points in the first half, shooting 54.7 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from 3-point range. It marked the second straight first half they surpassed 75 points, the first time they’ve done that in back-to-back games since 1988.
They had 114 points entering the fourth quarter — the most points they’ve scored through three quarters in a game since 2008.
And for the first time in team history, they’ve surpassed 130 points in three straight games.
Everywhere you look, the Knicks are achieving rare offensive feats.
“The ball was moving,” Jalen Brunson said. “We were playing off each other, playing ball. When the ball is moving like that, we’re making shots, it’s great to see.”
What is perhaps most promising is how many different ways the Knicks can hurt opponents. Brunson led the team in scoring with 32 points, but six players scored in double digits.
The disgruntled Morant, whose Grizzlies future is at a delicate place, struggled with 16 points on rough 4-for-14 shooting.
During this five-game winning streak, the Knicks have outscored their opponents by 101 points. But there is another level they vow to unlock.
“You talk about 47 field goals made and 35 of those were assisted so we did do some things right,” Brown said. “But I know and I think some guys in the locker room feel we could have done better.”
There was a telling moment in the third quarter — Karl-Anthony Towns drove to the rim and was fouled while hitting a floater to give the Knicks a 26-point lead. But before he took his free throw, Brunson brought him over and spoke with him, unsatisfied with how they ran the offense that possession.
That is the standard they are holding themselves to.
“I think we’re a work in progress,” Towns said. “All of us are trying to figure out where we can impact the game the most in this system. We’re still working on it.”
That “work in progress” is already dominant.
