The Orlando Magic were red hot when they came to Madison Square Garden last night but they went ice cold against a Knicks team that put together their best game of the season against a quality opponent.
The Knicks were an offensive juggernaut as they smothered the Magic, 121-106 in their NBA Cup finale. The Magic had won six straight and 12 of 13 coming in but the final score doesn’t do justice to how dominant the Knicks were in this one.
The Knicks finished 4-0 in Group A and clinched home advantage in the NBA Cup quarterfinals and will host the Atlanta Hawks next Wednesday night.
The Magic led the NBA in opponents PPG (102.3) but the Knicks are one of the best offensive teams in the league and that was on display in this one.
The Knicks had six players in double figures led by Karl-Anthony Towns who had 23 points and a team high 15 rebounds. Jalen Brunson had 11 of his 21 points in the third quarter and Josh Hart had a triple-double with 11 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.
“We knew they [Orlando] were gonna be physical so we just tried to use that physicality against them,” Hart said. “Get into our sets, when they converge on the paint, kick out and make shots. I think we did that and I think we were very selfless.”
Brunson is not being relied upon to score as much as last season. Coach Tom Thibodeau said he’s matured into being even more of a leader this season. “What I think great leadership is is providing whatever your team needs. So sometimes it’s more of a distributor, sometimes it’s more of a scorer,” he said.
“We saw last year, we got down people so we needed him to score to have a chance. Now we have more scorers and he’s just reading the game and then someone gets going. If they load up on him, which teams are gonna do, then just make the right play, don’t fight the double team, hit the open man, guys are getting real comfortable cutting off him and those easy baskets are huge for us.”
The Knicks tailed off in a sloppy fourth quarter but still shot 51% for the game and 43% from three. They also canned 20 of 20 from the free throw line and recorded 30 assists for the 11th time this season. Orlando shot 44% from the field and only 9 for 39 (23%) from three. At one point, the Magic missed 17 consecutive shots from beyond the arc.
“I thought we played very unselfishly, guys played together, they created good shots for each other. They’re a great defensive team so I thought that was important,” Thibodeau said.
The Knicks led by as many as 37 points (103-66) in the third quarter but the Magic needed to get the deficit below 36 points because of point differential that would’ve cost them a wild card spot in the NBA Cup.
Orlando, who was the worst team in the NBA shooting threes, came out on fire as they hit their first three from beyond the arc to take a 14-6 lead, but a Towns dunk capped off an 11-0 run that put the Knicks up 17-14 and they never looked back.
Deuce McBride, who was 5 for 7 from three and scored 18 points off the bench, made a 25 footer and was fouled. McBride completed the four point play to give the Knicks a 27-23 lead with less than two minutes left in the first quarter.
“We want to impact the game always positively and that doesn’t mean scoring the ball,” McBride said. “That might mean just an effort, energy play on the defensive end or a kick ahead in transition on offense. It’s anything you can do to impact the game positively.”
Mikal Bridges, who scored 19 points, completed a conventional three point play and Cameron Payne scored the final five points of the quarter that gave the Knicks a 36-27 lead after one.
The Knicks shot 65% (13 for 20) in the first quarter and the second quarter was more of the same. The Knicks were 13 for 25 and outscored Orlando, 35-24 to take a 71-51 lead at halftime.
The end of the half typified how well things were going for the Knicks. Hart inbounded the ball from under his own basket with just under two seconds left and fired it down court. The ball got to Towns and he tipped it to Bridges who buried a buzzer beating bank shot.
There was no let up in the third quarter.
Brunson hit a three to up the lead to 74-53 and after the Knicks captain completed two conventional three point plays, the lead was a jaw dropping 88-58.
Towns hit one of his two threes with 19 seconds left as the Knicks took a commanding 106-75 lead after three.
Orlando outscored the Knicks, 31-15 in the fourth to get the deficit down low enough to clinch a wild card spot in the NBA cup.
Franz Wagner led the Magic with 30 points while his brother, Mo Wagner had 20 off the bench for Orlando, who clinched a wild card spot and will play the Bucks in Milwaukee next week.