Hawks 116, Knicks 100: "That was beyond frustrating.”

This was bound to happen, wasn’t it?

The New York Knicks lost a winnable game (on paper, at least) against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, falling 116-100 to the visiting Peaches inside the walls of Madison Square Garden.

What I meant with that introductory question is that when you hoist 52 treys, you have to miss a whole bunch of them, don’t you? I have seen a bunch of headlines out there calling out Donte DiVincenzo’s 5-of-17 from beyond the arc. I am not excusing him, but he shot a freaking seventeen three-balls.

Do you know how many players have attempted 17+ triples in a single game more than twice this season? One: Steph Curry, that’s who, which is not surprising at all. Only three players have gone for 17+ 3PA at least twice, with Donte joining Klay Thompson and Bogdan Bogdanovic yesterday. These are their games:

• Bogdan Bogdanovic vs. DEN: 10-of-17 (59%)
• Donte DiVincenzo vs NOP: 7-of-18 (39%)
• Klay Thompson at MIL: 6-of-17 (35%)
• Klay Thompson vs. LAL: 6-of-17 (35%)
• Bogdan Bogdanovic at MIA: 6-of-18 (33%)
• Donte DiVincenzo vs, ATL: 5-of-17 (29%)

DiVo surely misfired more often than not, that’s obvious, but so did all of the players listed above except on one occasion in which BogBog caught absolute NBA Jam Fire and couldn’t find a way to miss the net. Let me tell you that if I ever launch 17 three-point shots in a basketball game I’d probably be falling short of even reaching the basket by the seventh or eighth attempt. Let alone dreaming about more than 35% of them all flying balls.

Anyway, that’s just a single data point from a matchup the Knicks lost by 16 points, which if you only peeped at the final score is definitely a misleading nugget of information and summarization of what happened inside MSG—which wasn’t pretty, but neither that ugly.

The headline of this recap is cropped. Here’s the full one, courtesy of JA311 from yesterday’s Game Thread: “That was beyond frustrating, especially getting the tie in the third and watching it melt away.”

No, the Knicks probably didn’t deserve to win.

No, the Knicks couldn’t buy a bucket to save their lives.

No, the Knicks didn’t face a team featuring their absolute No. 1 player on Tuesday.

And still...

The Knicks tied the game late in the third frame, stayed as close as four points down with a little over six minutes to go, and only an outlier shooting performance from the field kept them from taking the dub against a Trae-less Hawks mob that could barely deal with a New York eight-man rotation missing four starters, including Jalen Brunson.

Deuce McBride was the man assigned the start at the point with Shake Milton popping up inside the Garden but still not quite available (DNP-CD). You know what happened next: McBride ended up playing 46 minutes after logging 47 last Sunday, making it 93 in two games and three days. That odometer.

“I feel fine honestly. That’s what I put in the offseason work for. I prepare my body for this,” McBride said. “You never know what’s going to happen. Got to be ready for anything.”

The Knicks were bad at shooting and scoring (100 points in the current NBA economy is just not going to cut it) but according to Tom Thibodeau, the main problem on Tuesday was rebounding.

“You’re in position to win, the rebounding was a problem,” Thibodeau said in his post-game presser. “That was a bigger concern for me. Missed shots are a part of the game but your rebounding that’s important. It’s one of the few times we got outrebounded.”

Coach is almost right. The Knicks have only lost the battle on the boards in 13 of their 62 games through Tuesday. Twice they did so by just one rebound, and two more times by three boards. Yesterday, however, they lost the glass war by 11 rebounds (a near-season-high only topped by a minus-12 against the Bucks before Christmas).

One of New York’s best (healthy and available) rebounders, Precious Achiuwa, finished with six boards in 24 minutes. Thibs benched him with 2:36 remaining in the third quarter and he never returned to the floor.

Asked about that decision, Thibs retorted to one of his classics. “Just the way the game went,”, Thibs reasoned, “they were collapsing so we needed shooting on the floor.”

Only Josh Hart (mad tired) and Jericho Sims (off the pine) grabbed more rebounds than Achiuwa against the Hawks, finishing with eight and nine boards respectively.

Alec Burks was limited to 12 minutes but he was one of the men taking minutes from Precious in the final frame, finishing the game with 11 points, two rebounds, and one assist and steal apiece. Meh.

Truth be told, it can be said that everybody on the Knicks shot their shots but nobody approached being accurate. DiVo (21 points) led the team with 7 FGM but he needed 24 to get there. Bogey followed suit with a 6-of-18 and the second-most points scored, stopping his count at 19. No other Knick reached 15 points...

Out of curiosity, I looked up how many times a team has attempted 50+ 3-point shots while making fewer than 31% of them. This season, that’s happened only four times (none of those teams won). In the history of the Association, it’s happened just 42 times, all of them from 2017 on.

What I’m saying is that things can only improve from this frustrating game on. The Knicks might win, the Knicks might lose, but putting on such an outlier shooting day is not going to happen again.

Waiting for you, Shake! Tip-off at 7:00 ET on Friday against the Orlando Magic. Don’t miss it—it’s getting hot out there.