The Knicks Won!! (No, seriously, they won a game)

One would think Sunday's impressive performance would earn McBride, Sims and Reddish additional minutes going forward, but with our buddy Tom Thibodeau calling the shots, nothing is guaranteed.

Knicks Clip the Clippers, 116-93

Coming into Sunday night, New York had lost each of the last five games in which they built a lead of at least 14 points, so you have to forgive Knicks fans if they were a bit uneasy late last night.   

In Los Angeles, New York had built a seemingly insurmountable 26-point cushion with less than 18 minutes left in the game. However, I've lost count of how many times I've written "seemingly insurmountable" this season, only to follow it up with a "but somehow…"

And it looked like we were on track for yet another monumental, inexplicable collapse heading into the final frame. New York's lead was (to borrow a phrase from the greatest poet of our generation, Nas) "dissolvin', like cotton candy in a mouth that's starvin'." 

By the end of the third quarter, the Knicks' lead had shrunk to just 12 points, and the Clippers were within striking distance. But this time, the Knicks kids stepped in and stepped up. 

Deuce McBride (age 21), Immanuel Quickley (22), Cam Reddish (22), and Jericho Sims (23) were all on the floor together to start the fourth. They never came out, extending the lead to 32 points and cruising to an easy victory. 

Reddish, in particular, was magnificent late in the game, scoring 15 of his 17 points in the final quarter. He scored eight points in a 10-0 Knicks run at the start of the fourth that crushed the Clippers' momentum.

RJ Barrett, who played with the kids over the first six minutes of the 4Q, finished with 24/9/4. It was his fifth straight game with at least 20 points.

IQ also played very well, notching his first career double-double. He finished the game with 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting, ten rebounds, six assists (vs. just one turnover). He was a crucial factor in facilitating the offense as New York salted away the win.

As I wrote on Saturday, the Knicks' ineptitude late in games in 2022 had reached almost unimaginable levels. Before the Clippers' win, New York had held a double-digit lead in 10 of their previous 12 contests and managed to lose nine of those ten games. The Knicks had led by 14+ points in five of their previous seven games and figured out a way to lose every one of them.

Julius Randle, Alec Burks and Evan Fournier were the three players that logged the most minutes in those defeats. Of the 430 players who have played at least one minute in the fourth quarter of an NBA game over the last month, Randle, Burks and Fournier rank dead last in plus/minus at 428th, 429th and 430th, respectively. 

Incredibly, the Knicks have been outscored by 78 points in the 70 minutes Julius Randle has logged in the fourth quarter over NY's last 11 games. In those 70 minutes, Randle is 6-for-28 from the floor (21%) and 0-of-6 from deep and has committed six turnovers.

Yet, neither Randle nor Burks, nor Fournier logged a second in the fourth quarter on Sunday. And the Knicks not only went on to win the game, but they also dramatically increased their lead and won comfortably, outsourcing Los Angeles 35-24 over the final 12 minutes of regulation. Keep in mind, the Clippers were riding a five-game winning streak heading into Sunday and had authored multiple 25-point comebacks this season.