Scenes from a bruised and sweaty Knicks loss in your Easter basket

In the Easter evening game, the New York Knicks (44-30) hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder (52-22) at Madison Square Garden. The Thunder came in tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the West’s best record, while the Knicks are in a horse race with the Cavs and Magic for the third, fourth, and fifth spots in the East. With nine games left (including tonight), every win and loss counts toward playoff positioning. A win against the Thunder? That’s a tall order.

A strong performance from Isaiah Hartenstein and solid defense helped the Knicks finish the first quarter with a five-point lead, but the Thunder regained momentum in the second quarter to go ahead 50-46 at halftime. The home team blasted out of the locker room on a tear and won the third quarter by 14 points. In the final frame, OKC changed its strategy to flip the script and charge back. Both teams missed free throws and shots down the stretch, and they swapped the lead with two clutch baskets in the final five seconds. It is very possible that Miles McBride played the cleanest defense that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has encountered all season. That made SGA’s dagger with 2.1 left all the more painful. Thunder steal the win, 113-112.

For Oklahoma, Jalen Williams topped their scorers with 33 points on 14-of-18 shooting and was a problem in the fourth; SGA managed only 19 points on 7-of-16; and Josh Giddey finished with a 16 point, 13 board, and 12 assist triple-double. Their coach leaned on Giddey heavily in the final frame and it proved a smart strategy.

As for the Knicks, Jalen led the way with 30 points and seven assists on 11-of-25 shooting, and Isaiah Hartenstein mostly ate Chet Holmgren’s lunch, scoring 17 points, 12 rebounds, and five dimes. Josh Hart tallied up 13 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, and 45 minutes. Deuce contributed on both ends, finishing with 19 points, 46 minutes, and hitting 4-of-10 from downtown.

Donte DiVincenzo had a rough night, though, making 15 points and hitting only 25% of his 16 three-point attempts. He played 40 minutes and looked like it. And aside from one or two notable plays by Precious Achiuwa, the bench was almost entirely a negative. Beating a deep team with basically six guys? Also a tall order.

First Half

For New York, Mitchell Robinson, OG Anunoby, and Julius Randle sat out with injuries again. The Thunder had their full complement of rotational players with their leader Shai Gilgeous-Alexander active despite a nagging quad issue.

Shai averages 30.4 points per game, third-best in the league. Miles McBride drew the SGA assignment and defended him well, limiting the All-Star to 1-of-6 shooting in the first. Down low, New York’s Isaiah Hartenstein outmuscled OKC’s rookie center Chet Holmgren, grabbing five rebounds to Chester’s one. The defense was back!

The teams swapped buckets and misses and found themselves tied at 12 by the midway point. New York was misfiring from deep, hitting just a quarter of their first eight shots, but OKC wasn’t faring much better (2-of-6). Soon after, a 9-0 run gave New York a seven-point lead.

When they met last December, the Thunder outscored New York by 13 in the first quarter. On Friday in San Antonio, the Knicks lost Q1 by 11. Tonight, they wisely avoided this pitfall. The Tornadoes average 30 points per first quarter this season but were held to just 17, and New York finished the period with a five-point lead.

An 11-6 Thunder start to the second quarter leveled things out at 28 before Alec Burks swished a corner ball. OKC played with pep and passed with pizzazz, but their shots weren’t falling: through two quarters, they had made just 19 of 46 field goal attempts.

A 10-2 OKC run gave them a slight lead late in the half, and they entered intermission ahead of New York, 50-46. Thunder sophomore Jalen Williams cooked the Knicks for a career-high 36 points back in December. Tonight, he would lead his squad with 15-first half points on 7-of-10 shooting.

First Jalen Brunson twisted one ankle stepping on Lu Dort’s sneaker, then the other a few minutes later. He limped through the remainder of the quarter.

The Thunder applied zone defense, but New York found ways to slice through it for scores. For New York, Isaiah Hartenstein was tops with 10 points and Josh Hart added eight boards. The home team was winning rebounds (28-25), as well as second-chance (15-10) and paint points (22-16). Solid defense and ball protection (only four first half turnovers) kept the Knicks in the game—their 4-of-21 three-point shooting certainly hadn’t done them any favors.

Second Half

The Knicks had tuned up their shooting mechanics during intermission and made their first five field goals of the half on their way to a 22-9 run. Donte DiVincenzo had missed seven of his eight first-half three-point attempts; in the third frame, he swished his first two, as though night and day. Meanwhile, Deuce kept the vice clamps on SGA, and iHart kept giving Chet the biz. Like so.

New York had one steal in the first half and four in the third quarter. Too good to roll over for a tummy rub, the Thunder fought back, but the Knicks were determined to hold their advantage. They entered the final period ahead, 85-75.

Jalen Brunson sat on the bench to start the fourth quarter, and just like that, OKC outscored New York 15-5 and knotted the score at 90. Mark Daigneault appeared to change strategy a bit, calling more plays that drove Giddey into the paint. The adjustment worked. Giddey scored 12 of his 16 points in the final frame, and the Thunder jumped out to an eight-point lead, their largest yet.

The Thunder began to exert some power in the paint, too, and would finish the game with eight blocks. Charitably, they missed 12 free throws that would have buried the Knicks. On the opposite end, Deuce swished three clutch freebies, but his teammates missed six at the line.

As the game wound down, the intensity increased.

Deuce hit his fourth trey with just under two minutes left; Jalen Williams answered with his own. DiVo missed another longball, and his legs looked like rubber after playing the entire second half. With 18 seconds left, Holmgren fouled Brunson, who missed his second free throw. Hartenstein grabbed the board and kicked out to DiVo, who bricked again, but OKC knocked it out of bounds. Still alive!

With four seconds left, Jalen attacked Holmgren and Dort for a layup. Contact. No whistle. A one-point lead for the home team.

After struggling for most of the game, SGA put up a fadeaway jumper on Deuce McBride to take the lead once more. With 1.8 seconds on the clock, Donte found Jalen for the inbound pass, but Shai defended him well and the shot fell short. Ballgame.

Up Next

Eight games remain in the regular season. The Miami Heat, also in the playoff hunt, visit on Tuesday for what should be a gritty one. [Editor’s Note: The game is in Miami.] Get your rest, Knickerbockers.

Box Score