The Knicks offense is scary good and may just be getting started

DENVER – Josh Hart had never seen anything like it The before.

Back in October, the defending champion Boston Celtics welcomed the New York Knicks into the new season with an offensive performance so ridiculous that the Knicks guard could only laugh as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. Boston took 61 3s and made 29 of them. The Celtics converted over 50 percent of their field goal attempts en route to a 132-109 win over New York on opening night. That night, Boston made the 2015-16 Warriors look mortal.

“The NBA has to drug test them all,” Hart said jokingly. “I’m telling you.”

A month later, and by Hart’s standards, the Knicks probably should have peed in a trophy after Monday night’s 145-118 win over the Denver Nuggets.

New York was synchronized swimming on the hardwood, a choir in sneakers. Forget the fact that the Knicks posted their highest regular-season points total since 1980. The franchise set a record for most assists in a game (45), one player scored 40 points and another scored 30 points, while only missing three shots and another scoring 23 points and dishing out 17 assists. The Knicks shot 60.9 percent from the field and 52.8 percent from three in a 48-minute game, surpassing all of the Celtics’ efficiency marks on a night Hart joked he had never experienced before.

“You’re going to have games like that,” said Hart, who scored 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting. “That’s why we don’t panic after every game. We’ll leave the panic to all of you.”

After the game, many of the Knicks tried to downplay what happened.

This is Knicks basketball‼️

OG 40 PTS | 5 REB | 4 AST
CAT 30 PTS | 15 REB | 4 AST
Jalen 23 PTS | 3 REB | 17 AST
Josh 12 PTS | 6 REB | 5 AST
Mikal 14 PTS | 6 AST
Deuce 13 PTS | 6 REB | 3 AST
Cam 11 PTS | 5 AST pic.twitter.com/LCVgi7Ae7N

– NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) November 26, 2024

“I feel like we’ve done this quite a few times,” said OG Anunoby, who scored 40 points and continues his “I’m more than just a defenseman” tour this season.

In a way, Anunoby is right. The Knicks had an offense as efficient as basketball this season. However, they have never done that before. Not many teams have ever shot more than 60 percent from the field, more than 50 percent from three balls and had 45 assists like that as a team. That’s not normal. Denver wasn’t bad from the jump; The Knicks simply crumbled the Nuggets and smoked them with a relentless offense.

However, Anunoby said New York’s offense may not be normal. It’s scary good. And it could get better. The Knicks have the second-best offense in the NBA after the win. They and the Cavaliers are the only two teams in the NBA that rank in the top three in both 2-point and 3-point field goal percentage. Only two teams shoot better from mid-range than the Knicks. There are only a handful of teams that can move the ball better. They take care of the ball at a league-leading level.

New York has an elite offense, despite ranking last in the NBA in free throw attempts per game and near the bottom of the league in shots at the rim. One reason the Knicks rank low in these areas is because they are such an efficient jump-shooting team. They lean on their strengths. They have improved at getting into the team and making good 3s from the inside out, but can still make progress in that regard.

The addition of Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 30 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, and the spacing he provides has opened up the opportunity for Jalen Brunson, who scored 23 points and dished out a career-best 17 assists, to move up his spots the pitch and lately you get deep pops of color with less traffic. It opens up opportunities for Anunoby and Hart to break through the defense from multiple angles. This allowed the team to generate good looks from 3 good 3-point shooters. It has helped Mikal Bridges have room to get his coveted mid-range jumpers while his 3-point shooting catches up.

The Knicks have several players who can create their own shots. They have just as many who can score without initiating the offense. When the ball moves with the same determination as it has in recent games, there’s not much a team can do to slow the Knicks’ offense.

“I feel like this is a good place for us (chemistry-wise),” Brunson said, “but I feel like he’s going to continue to grow this year and next year.”

The narrative that has followed head coach Tom Thibodeau over the last decade is that he is a defensive coach. However, Thibodeau had top-five offenses in Chicago, Minnesota and multiple times in New York. His teams create the looks needed to win in today’s NBA. They now have the talent across the board to implement these experiments at a high level.

OG Anunoby, shown with Jalen Brunson, reacts after a successful 3-pointer. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)

Brunson finds the perfect balance between getting others involved and taking advantage of his scoring opportunities. Towns has been exceptionally efficient as a shooter since joining the Knicks. Anunoby is shooting the ball better than he ever has in his career. Hart is an A-plus cutter and currently the best finisher at the rim. Bridges is one of the better mid-range shooters in the league. Miles McBride and Cameron Payne came off the bench and scored efficient goals.

The Knicks’ defense still needs to catch up with their offense, but there have been several instances this season where the swarming defense easily led to points on the other side. As New York’s defense improves, its offense will only improve.

Until then, the Knicks will be fine because the goal of the sport is to score more points than your opponents. And lately, New York seems to be the only team that can stop New York from scoring.

(Top photo by Karl-Anthony Towns: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)