Knicks Fall to the beaten-up Jazz

A big topic of last year’s team for the New York Knicks was the fact that they took care of lesser teams. Coming off a gritty win versus the Toronto Raptors, the Knicks’ momentum hoped to carry them into the next game versus the Utah Jazz. Unfortunately, that was just not the case against a team the Knicks should have beaten.

The Jazz carved up the Knicks who are supposed to be one of the better teams on defense in the NBA. The Knick’s 3-point defense has been horrible over this stretch and it continued in today’s game.

USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con

So what went wrong for the Knicks? Well, the 3-point shooting was horrendous, the Knicks shot 9-39 as a team, while allowing the Jazz to shoot 16-42. Lauri Markkanen in his first game torched the Knicks with off-ball movement scoring 23 points, seven rebounds, and shooting 50% from three. Colin Sexton had 26 points, seven assists, and 4 rebounds while shooting 37% from three. It just seemed the Knicks were getting out-hustled and out-muscled all game. Even though all the Jazz starters were negative in plus/minus, it didn’t seem to matter in this game.

USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con

It’s hard to really point out positives for the Knicks. Julius Randle was really the lone bright spot this game with 34 points, six assists and 12 rebounds. The only question marks that really rise from this game is what is going on with Jalen Brunson’s 3-point shooting, and is RJ Barrett regressing again? The reason I ask this is because when RJ gets injured he has a terrible slump and the game against the Jazz is it was completely on display. Brunson is also notching another game in which he made zero 3-point shots.

The Knicks have to shore up given that this is a tough road stretch for them as they face the Phoenix Suns on Friday.