No Contest In New York: Knicks Roll, Wizards Tie 16-game Skid

No surprises in New York: the Knicks are one of the better teams in the East, the Wizards one of the worst. The Knicks want to win, the Wizards have every incentive to lose. The result: a 145-113 walloping that gave New York their fifth straight victory and Washington a 16th consecutive defeat.

That losing streak ties the franchise record for sustained futility, which was set last March…when the team was also trying to lose to increase their chances of getting a high draft pick. They ended up drafting sixth and selecting Tre Johnson.

Up next for the Wizards, a theoretically winnable game against the Utah Jazz. In recent years, the Jazz have been league leaders in tanking shenanigans. This season, they have the NBA’s fifth worst record and have already likely taken themselves out of the running for bottom three status.

This one ran true to expectations. The Wizards were short-handed due to injuries, “injuries,” and Justin Champagnie’s suspension for his role in the fight with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Knicks were better from opening tip and progressively ground their way to a steadily increasing margin. Washington went on a run early in the second quarter to briefly tie the game, but were quickly slapped aside by the business-like Knicks.

As would be expected for an undersized and undermanned squad — the 6-8 Anthony Gill played 26 minutes at center — the Wizards got pummeled on the boards. Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson combined for 26 rebounds — just two short of Washington’s total for the game.

Thoughts & Observations

• Knicks broadcaster Walt Frazier wore an amazing ensemble, even by his lofty standards for the outlandish. I started writing a description, but it would take more than a thousand words. I’m not sure we have enough words in English to do it justice. So, click to see it for yourself.
• The Knicks opened the game with Jalen Brunson on Bilal Coulibaly. The Wizards went straight to Coulibaly, who promptly committed an offensive foul by pushing off with his forearm. Cue sad trombone sound effect.
• The Knicks ran a high pick-and-roll with Towns screening for Brunson. For some reason, Vukcevic was so deep in the paint, he was standing nearly under the basket. Brunson drilled a wide open three. My instinct on this based on the personnel involved is that Vukcevic should have been at the level of the screen. Another possibility is that the Wizards coaches have decided Vukcevic can’t play anything but deep drop. If so, his usefulness when the team wants to win will be greatly diminished.
• Midway through the first quarter, the Wizards challenged a blocking foul called on Vukcevic. The official review upheld the call, as it should have based on current rules. I think that rule should be adjusted, though. While Vukcevic was still moving, he was sliding laterally and got to that spot well before Towns arrived. The collision was caused by Towns plowing through the spot. I’d love to see the rulebook acknowledge that defenders have a right to exist in space on the basketball court.
• An example of good play/system design by Brian Keefe came at 5:51 of the first quarter. The set involved a pindown for Coulibaly, which morphed instantly into a pick-and-roll. Coulibaly attacked Brunson, driving into the paint and converting a layup.
• A recurring note basically all season: I’m tired of seeing Bub Carrington (and nearly everyone else) bring the ball across halfcourt and immediately put up a three without making a pass or running an action.
• A bit of Knicks trivia: Mike Brown got his 500th win in the previous game. He’s the 10th fastest coach to 500 wins in NBA history. The top nine: Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, KC Jones, Greg Popovich, Steve Kerr, Don Nelson, Chuck Daly, Red Auerbach, and George Karl.
• Wizards rookie Jamir Watkins had several strong defensive possessions on Brunson, including some superb ball denial. He probably should have been called for a foul a few times, but the refs let some contact go.
• The Knicks scored 68 points in the first half while attempting just 10 threes.
• At one point, Knicks play-by-play man Mike Breen said Leaky Black had been a superb defender in college. Not sure I believe that based on what I’ve seen at the NBA level, though Black did have a handful of good defensive plays last night.
• From the notebook: Jaden Hardy is a bucket — good shooter; aggressive offensively — 11 minutes, 14 points. He finished with 25 points in 29 minutes. While I like the offense, he needs to do more out there to earn significant playing time.
• Josh Hart was 3-3 from three-point range. He’s now made his last nine threes in a row. The Knicks record is 10 consecutive makes. The NBA record is 13.
• Gill tied his career high with 18 points. He reached 18 twice before — both in 2023.
• Knicks guard Tyler Kolek scored 11 points in garbage time. Earlier in the day, he had 42 points and 11 assists in a game for the G-League Westchester Knicks. That’s 53 points and 12 assists combined between the two leagues/games on the day.
• This was Washington’s second worst defensive performance of the season. The worst was their 146-101 drubbing by the Boston Celtics.

Four Factors

Below are the four factors that decide wins and losses in basketball — shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).

The four factors are measured by:

• eFG% (effective field goal percentage, which accounts for the three-point shot)
• OREB% (offensive rebound percentage)
• TOV% (turnover percentage — turnovers divided by possessions)
• FTM/FGA (free throws made divided by field goal attempts)

esigned for larger data sets. In small sample sizes, the numbers can get weird. In PPA, 100 is average, higher is better and replacement level is 45. For a single game, replacement level isn’t much use, and I reiterate the caution about small samples sometimes producing weird results.

POSS is the number of possessions each player was on the floor in this game.

ORTG = offensive rating, which is points produced per individual possessions x 100. League average so far this season is listed in the Four Factors table above. Points produced is not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as sharing credit when receiving an assist.

USG = offensive usage rate. Average is 20%. Median so far this season is 17.7%.

ORTG and USG are versions of stats created by former Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver and modified by me. ORTG is an efficiency measure that accounts for the value of shooting, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. USG includes shooting from the floor and free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers.

+PTS = “Plus Points” is a measure of the points gained or lost by each player based on their efficiency in this game compared to league average efficiency on the same number of possessions. A player with an offensive rating (points produced per possession x 100) of 100 who uses 20 possessions would produce 20 points. If the league average efficiency is 115, the league — on average — would produced 23.0 points in the same 20 possessions. So, the player in this hypothetical would have a +PTS score of -3.0.

Players are sorted by total production in the game.