It takes a lot to hold one NBA team below 80 points. You obviously need shooting luck. Hopefully the whistles are on your side. Playing against injured opponents also helps, especially when the few remaining healthy players are out in the cold. It never hurts to get your best defender back after an injury, as New York Knicks did it on Tuesday. The return of OG Anunoby helped the Knicks hold the 76ers at just 79 points on Tuesday, but it would be difficult to call that a deciding factor. After all, this isn’t the first time the Knicks have held an opponent under 80 points in recent times.
In fact, the Knicks just became the first team since 2012 to hold three straight opponents below 80 points. The streak began Thursday, when the Knicks faced a Magic of Orlando team playing without a starting point guard Jalen Suggs and came away with a 98-74 victory. This continued on Sunday, when the Knicks, still facing the 76ers, were defeated but only allowed 79 points In the process.
The Knicks hit all of those benchmarks during their marvelous three-game defensive stretch. Their opponents shot a miserable 23 of 89 (25.8%) from deep and attempted only 50 free throws in total when the league season average would suggest they should have expected 66 or 67. Suggs missed the Magic game. Joel Embiid missed both 76ers games. Tyrese Maxey I sat down on Sunday. Tobias Harris is in the middle of a months-long cold spell. The stars have aligned for the Knicks. Hence the story.
Of course, it’s hard to believe it’s been over a decade since the stars aligned in this way. After all, we’re talking about a three-game sample size here. It’s tiny in the grand scheme of things. But the downward trend in scoring across the league? This sample is starting to grow.
Before the All-Star break, the league average offensive rating was 116.4, according to Clean the glass. It has fallen to 114.1 since the break. Each team of NBA averaging at least 107 points per game before the break. From? Six teams averaged below that mark. Post-pause NBA games average 39.6 free throw attempts per game, compared to 45.3 before the break. according to Statmuse.
It’s hard to call a three-game streak of fewer than 80 points inevitable in anything other than 2004. Pistons, but the way things have been going over the past month suggests that someone was going to start posting historic defensive numbers. Fewer fouls have been called lately. This carries over into how teams defend. More physicality is allowed. The defenses benefit from it.
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Does that, in itself, explain what is happening in New York right now? No, because if it did, more teams would do it. Everything we covered above comes into play, and of course, New York’s roster and coaches do too. Tom Thibodeau has built a defensive culture that has allowed him to endure an incredible number of injuries. This was already a top-10 defense.
But the 10th-ranked defense before the All-Star break (Memphis at 113.5 points per 100 possessions) would rank 17th in this new anything-goes post-break defensive world we live in now. The Knicks may have been the first defense to make this kind of history after the 2024 All-Star break, but they won’t be the last.
