HOUSTON — The movement stopped. All the cuts and motion from three nights prior in Detroit had disappeared against the Rockets, who stuck professional agitator Dillon Brooks on Karl-Anthony Towns and threw a curveball that the Knicks chased way out of the zone.
“We can’t just try to consistently chase the mismatch,” Josh Hart said after the Knicks lost Monday night to the Rockets, 109-97. “We’ve got to get more movement into it. Even when we got the mismatch we wanted, it was very stagnant. And then we’re just going against a loaded defense. Then it’s tough to offensive rebound, tough to do stuff like that. I think we were decent. We probably complained a little bit too much [to the referees], let that take us out of the game. We’ve just got to learn from it and build off of it.”
The supposed mismatch — a 7-foot Towns against a 6-6 Brooks — didn’t make hay. Towns scored just 17 on 7-for-17 shooting with zero 3-pointers.
He dealt with foul trouble, totaled just two points on five post-ups despite the size advantage and the Knicks were outscored by 26 points in his 32 minutes.
If anything, the Rockets took advantage of the matchup as the Knicks offense turned into a series of difficult shots against a physical opponent.
Hart, to his credit, didn’t want to make excuses about the officiating, even after coach Tom Thibodeau was clearly peeved by the calls in his separate postgame interviews.
Hart’s big contention was about a stalled offense that went from 31 assists in Detroit to 20 in Houston.
“I think sometimes we have Brooks on KAT and we’re trying to find that, we’re trying to get [Rockets center Alperen Sengun] into the action. We’re doing that so much, KAT’s catching the ball 12 feet from the basket and he turns and they have everybody in the paint converging and it’s not as much of a mismatch as we would like,” said Hart, who finished with 12 points and seven assists in 38 minutes. “But when we’re able to kind of get the ball moving, forcing them to make reads and get into their weak side of the court and think defensively, that’s when you open up the slips, the mistakes, and you’re able to capitalize on it. We scored [a season-low] 97 points. Offensively, we have to be more decisive, more in tune with the game. Teams see that they’re going to think that’s the blueprint.”
If the blueprint to beat the Knicks (3-3) develops into a smaller defender on Towns and to go switch-heavy on screens — both part of the Rockets’ strategy Monday — Towns didn’t seem too concerned ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Hawks at State Farm Arena.
“I’ve seen a lot of defenses in my career, so I’m just going to be prepared for whatever the defense and the opponent’s game plan is,” Towns said.
Still, the numbers back up Hart’s analysis. The ball stopped moving on Knicks possessions. According to NBA.com, the Knicks threw just 242 passes — 40 fewer than their season average. Jalen Brunson, who logged 42 minutes and faltered down the stretch, averaged over seven seconds with the ball per touch (a second more than his season average).
The point guard agreed with Hart that the Knicks were too consumed with hunting mismatches and offered the following solution: “Find something that we’re good at, and stick with it.”
Against Detroit, they were good at cutting and ball movement.
Against Houston, they weren’t good at much of anything offensively while shooting under 39 percent.
Next up is the Hawks.
“We’re a team that’s growing and we’re going to continue to grow until the last horn,” Towns said. “Good film to watch early in the season. You wish you could learn all these things and find ways to win. But obviously it’s an expensive lesson we went through [Monday].”
