The New York Knicks grinded out another victory on Sunday night, beating the Indiana Pacers 109-106 on the road to extend their winning streak to seven games.
The recent run of success has had many wondering if New York can really compete this season. It’s certainly the most excited fans have been in a while. Perhaps even during the postseason run in 2020-21.
And the excitement is earned. The longest regular-season winning streak in Knicks history in 18 games back in 1969-70. Since 1995, the Knicks have only won eight games in a row or more four times, and only one of those times has been since 2014 with the 2020-21 team winning nine straight games.
On Tuesday night, the Knicks will take on a Warriors without Stephen Curry for the chance to match that eight-game winning streak. However, even beyond the potential outcome of that one game, it’s become clear that there is a crucial similarity between this year’s team and the Knicks teams of the past that have staked these long winning streaks.
“We are the aggressor, not them,” said power forward Julius Randle after Sunday’s win, “and it works.”
It certainly has worked. Since the Knicks changed their starting lineup to focus more on defensive intensity, they are 9-4. Only the Nets have a better record over that stretch, going 11-2. But, more importantly, New York is 4th in overall net rating during these last 13 games, with a plus-6.1 rating, behind only the Grizzlies, Pelicans, and Cavaliers.
I discussed in the past that the biggest part of that rotation change was inserting Quentin Grimes into the starting lineup, but also cutting minutes for Derrick Rose and Evan Fournier and giving them to defensively superior players like Immanuel Quickley and Miles McBride.
That defense-first focus has created a mindset in New York where the fight and on-court competitiveness has never been higher. It may have started with Grimes, Quickley, and McBride but, as Randle said after Sunday’s win, “It is contagious.”
The Knicks are rotating to the ball constantly, helping each other in ways they weren’t early in the season. As a result, the defense is consistently forcing extra passes and forcing challenged shots, which is a far cry from articles we wrote earlier in the season that the Knicks were giving up more open shots than any team in the league.
Yet, New York responded by taking the fight to opponents on the defensive end, and the wins followed. It’s also caused this team to flourish with an identity that’s different than many expected to see coming into the season.
Coming into the year, the narrative (including from myself) was that Jalen Brunson would help the Knicks play faster. He is a great facilitator in the open court, and the Knicks had tremendous energy in their second unit, which would lead them to be successful in a faster-paced game.
However, over the last 13 games, the Knicks are 20th in the NBA in pace. Instead of constantly playing fast, they’ve picked their moments after defensive stops and have been winning games by grinding their opponents down.
Over the same 13-game span, the Knicks lead the NBA in loose balls recovered per game, including being tops in the league in defensive loose balls recovered at over three per game. They are also second in the NBA with a 53% rebounding rate, which means the team is doing the “dirty work” that fans used to love about the Charles Oakley and Anthony Mason-led teams of the past.
The defense has gotten even better over their seven-game winning streak where New York is giving up just 99 points per 100 possessions and holding opponents to a 46.7% shooting percentage, which is 7th-best in the league. The Grizzlies, who are first in the West, are second in points per 100 possessions during the same stretch at 101.0, so the Knicks have been superior to even the teams we’ve come to recognize as the best defensive teams in the game.
It’s certainly a recipe for continued success; however, there are still some warning signs.
Even over this 13-game stretch with the new lineup, the Knicks are 25th in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio, which has been a problem when they become too focused on isolation offense. They are also 23rd in the league in effective field goal percentage and also in true shooting percentage, which highlights a lack of shooting that has been a concern in seasons past as well.
Given those limitations, this certainly feels like a team that can be greater than the sum of its parts. When they are playing together and all buying into the same concepts, they can be tough to beat, but they will need to demonstrate that they can maintain the same principles even when a cold streak comes.
If the defensive intensity remains through those lulls, we could be looking at exciting postseason basketball in New York.
