The Knicks finally got the type of shooting they need.
During their 107-98 win over the Cavaliers on Sunday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, in which star Jalen Brunson exited just 47 seconds into the game with what the team called a left knee contusion, the Knicks got the type of performance from Bojan Bogdanovic they had envisioned when trading for him ahead of the deadline, and one that had been hard to find in his early days with the team.
And the Knicks got the type of showing from Donte DiVincenzo they had become accustomed to this year, but had gone missing in recent games.
With their ever-growing list of injuries they needed every bit of it to beat the Cavaliers. And for their ambition to make a serious run in the postseason, it will certainly need to continue.
Bogdanovic scored 20 points on 8-for-15 shooting in Sunday’s win.
Just one game prior, he scored just four points — all on free throws — on 0-for-7 shooting in a loss to the Warriors.
In his seven games with the Knicks entering Sunday, Bogdanovic was shooting a lowly 41.3 percent.
DiVincenzo poured in 28 points on 11-for-22 shooting on Sunday.
He had been mired in a small shooting slump, shooting 39.8 percent in his last seven games entering Sunday.
It had reached a low point in his last two games entering Sunday, when he shot a paltry 33.3 percent. Both are way down from his 45.1 percent mark for the season.
“Everybody in the flow of the offense was just moving the ball and just being aggressive,” DiVincenzo said after the game. “Honestly, just being my normal self, being aggressive. … We’re collectively together, and everybody wants each other to succeed. I don’t think there’s one guy who wants to go out there and outshine anybody. Tonight was a perfect game to see that. It was very balanced, everybody was getting shots.”
Outside of Brunson, DiVincenzo, who signed a four-year, $50 million contract with the Knicks this past offseason, and Bogdanovic are likely the Knicks’ two best shooters.
And their shooting ability is the primary reason general manager Leon Rose spent significant capital to acquire both.
If they’re both rolling like they were on Sunday, the Knicks will have needed shooting depth and stability.
During their recent concerning slide, in which they lost seven of nine games entering Sunday, the Knicks’ shooting as a team had gone wayward, hitting just 43.4 percent of their shots — third-worst in the NBA during that stretch.
But they jumped up to 48.8 percent on Sunday.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau described DiVincenzo and Bogdanovic’s performances as “huge” after Sunday’s game.
Both DiVincenzo and Bogdanovic were also helped by the Knicks’ improved ball movement, creating higher-quality looks for them.
The Knicks had 32 total assists on Sunday, the most they’ve recorded since a Dec. 11 win over the Raptors.
Brunson — and when he’s healthy, Julius Randle — usually operates and scores in isolation, and the ball often sticks in his hands for large portions of their offensive possessions. Without him, the Knicks were forced to use their passing and movement to create open looks, and they thrived.
When healthy, Brunson and Randle will resume their ball-dominance. But perhaps there is a happy medium between their norm and the team’s Sunday’s showing.
It certainly helped their two most important shooters.
“I thought the unselfishness [stood out], guys making plays for each other,” Thibodeau said. “[32] assists is a big-time number. … I thought the guys did a really good job with that.”