The last time that New York Knicks played a complete game with something resembling their optimal rotation, they handed the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets a 38-point loss.
Nearly two months later, the Knicks have no idea when they’ll be nearly whole again — but a resourceful, on-the-fly approach has them getting back into shape just in time for a rematch with the Nuggets.
The Knicks will aim to complete a perfect four-game West road trip when they visit the Nuggets on Thursday in a meeting of surging contenders.
The Knicks have been off since Monday, when they extended their winning streak to four games with a 119-112 victory over the Golden State Warriors. The Nuggets last played Tuesday, when they blew a 15-point halftime lead before coming back in the fourth quarter to edge the host Minnesota Timberwolves 115-112.
This winning streak is particularly timely for the Knicks (41-27), who are a half-game ahead of the Orlando Magic (41-28) in the race for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. The Magic have also won four in a row.
The Knicks went 14-2 in January, and they won nine in a row through February 1, highlighted by a 122-84 loss to the visiting Nuggets on January 25. But then they went 5-10 from February 3 to March 10. a period in which Julius Randle (dislocated right shoulder) and OG Anunoby (right elbow surgery) did not play.
While Randle remains without a return timetable, Anunoby returned on March 12, when the Knicks’ winning streak began with a 106-79 victory over the visiting Philadelphia 76ers. However, he traveled to New York for additional tests on his elbow on Monday and missed the win against the Warriors. He is also expected to be out Thursday evening.
Miles McBride replaced Anunoby and scored a career-high 29 points Monday, when the Knicks had 29 assists on 44 field goals, topped the Warriors 44-39 and never trailed after scoring the first eight points of the match.
“There’s a lot of cohesion in the group,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “So there’s the belief that we can win and we always talk about our defense, our rebounding, how we take care of the ball. I thought we shared the ball extremely well (at Golden State).”
The Nuggets (48-21), with their win Tuesday, improved to 12-2 in their last 14 games while breaking a tie for second place in the Western Conference with the Timberwolves (47-22). Denver enters Thursday’s contest a half-game behind the first-place Oklahoma City Thunder, who improved to 48-20 by beating the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
It wasn’t a perfect performance for the Nuggets in Minneapolis. Denver led 70-55 at halftime before the Timberwolves charged ahead by going on a 38-19 run over the first 17 minutes of the second half.
Michael Porter Jr. scored seven unanswered points to give Denver the lead for good, but Minnesota cut its eight-point deficit to one in the final 1:45. The Timberwolves had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but Anthony Edwards missed a 3-point attempt.
“We just came out lazy and had a hard time scoring.” Porter said, according to the Denver Post. “We just have to be more focused when we get bigger.”
–Field level media
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