The Knicks just played what might have been their most entertaining game of the entire season. Devoid of defense, neck and neck all game long and hitting overtime, the Knicks defeated the Cavaliers 139-134. Let me get the bad part out of the way. The defensive play was sloppy, with players getting confused on some switches and way too many open three pointers for the Cavs. But the Knicks' offensive play was strong enough to overcome the mess on defense. Elfrid Payton's triple double and Marcus Morris' clutch fourth quarter and overtime play were the catalysts. The youth all played well, including DSJ who finally seems to be on track. There's a lot to talk about so let's take a closer look:
Payton: Amid rumors that Knicks want to trade for a point guard, Elfrid Payton came out and played his best game of the season. The starting PG has always been a steady hand but his motor was in another gear for this one. Payton was effective getting inside, chased down some tough boards and threw some absolutely brilliant passes. My favorite pass came in transition as Payton waved Frank Ntilikina to cut to a wing. Frank obliged and brought his man wide which opened up an angle for Elfrid to whip a pass inside for Julius Randle who had outrun the Cavs' bigs.
And that was only my second favorite highlight of the night. The first one came with Payton on the bench of all places. DSJ air balled a free throw and Payton got out of his seat to yell encouragement, then stayed standing to applaud Smith when he sank his follow-up free throw. We've seen DSJ lose confidence and get stuck in his head this season, Payton jumped up and helped the kid stay in the right place mentally. So even off the court, Elfrid Payton was simply great. Payton finished with 17 points, 15 assists to 1 TO, and 11 boards on 8/17 shooting. He played as well as the numbers suggest.
Bullock: On a night when so many players had stand out performances, Reggie Bullock was his usual self. That's not a bad thing. He went 3/6 for 7 points and 4 boards along with some solid defense (a rarity for most Knicks). On the down side, he was 1/4 from three despite some good looks. But he was solid and I'm only cutting this short because I have a lot to say about some other performances.
Morris: The Knicks gave up a transition dunk midway through the fourth quarter and it felt like the game was slipping away. They were down 8 and coach Miller called a timeout. Marcus Morris came onto the floor, knocked down a tough midrange jumper and proceeded to take over offensively. While other players contributed for sure, it was Mook who took all of the most important shots and he made all but two game winning opportunities at the end of regulation. Morris was clutch, a presence that everyone else fed off of.
Mook put up 26 points and 2 boards on 8/15 from the field, 2/4 from three and 8/8 from the free throw line. 26 points on 15 attempts is just incredible and reflects that he was fairly quiet through three quarters but effective. Morris picked his spots and then when the Knicks needed him most, he simply took over.
Randle: Julius Randle's night was similar to Bullock's in that he gave his typical contribution. Usually that's good enough to be one of the best two performers on the night. In this case though, Randle took a bit of a backseat to Payton and Morris. I've gotta admit too, as the third option...Randle looked really good. Randle went 9/16 from the field to put up 20 points, 8 boards and 3 assists to 3 TO's. He didn't force much and made the most of his touches instead. The big man also showed some defensive effort, though Kevin Love's offense was just better in some clutch situations...that's always a tough match-up, I'm not mad at it.
Gibson: In his typical fashion, Taj Gibson put up a solid contribution in his 13 minutes of play. Taj put up 4/6 for 8 points and 3 boards. With Mitch having a quiet night, you'd expect Gibson to get some extra time but that wasn't the case. Instead, Mike Miller shifted Morris and Randle to the PF and C positions for chunks of the game. I can't complain about the results but Taj was good.
DSJ: It's been night and day for Dennis Smith Jr's performances from the beginning of the season to today. Smith looked limited physically which was compounded by the fact that he was all over the place mentally. The young guard's motor has been better in the past few games and he's playing above the rim more often. My favorite sign of life came when Smith took Colin Sexton to the rim, used a spin move for space and finished with two hands above the rim (shoulda dunked it harder though). He followed that up, by poking the inbounds pass out of bounds and almost getting a steal.
Smith finished with 15 points, 6 assists and 4 steals on 6/11 shooting. He finished inside and knocked down a couple of jumpers, plus exploded past and above defenders on multiple occasions. The best part is he's still not controlling the game as well as he did at his best last season. This is tip of the iceberg stuff fam! I also want to shout out Smith's defensive effort. At times he made mistakes or went under a screen unnecessarily but he offset the mistakes by being a pest. He harassed the inbounds and forced big men to bring the ball across half court, then he poked at the big men while they tried to dribble. This is closer to the guy we thought that we'd see this season.
Dot: Of all the victims to the logjams this season, I really feel like Damyean Dotson's gotten the rawest deal. He's been playing really well and last night was more of the same. But with Frank, DSJ and Payton all playing key roles in the win; Dot was relegated to 16 minutes of positive impact. The third year wing put up 9 points and 2 assists on 3/6 from the field. Again, he did that in 16 minutes. Dot knocked down jumpers and was steady. Other guys may have had bigger roles in the win but Dotson was really good in his limited time.
Knox: I'll keep pounding the table and shouting out the fact that Kevin Knox has had a much better motor in recent games. For this one, Knox was aggressive on offense and put in really solid defensive effort for mixed results but more positive than he's had historically. A highlight for me came when Knox fought through a screen to stay with his ball handler only to realize that Portis had made a premature switch, Knox had to change directions and make a full sprint just to challenge Portis' man who had been left wide open..but Knox did it. That's the effort we're always asking for, the use of athleticism that we're waiting to see.
Knox put up 12 points and 4 boards on 5/8 from the field and 2/4 from three in 17 minutes. Like Dotson, he contributed a lot for his fairly limited minutes. I'm going to once again beat a dead horse but the exciting thing about this production is how multi-faceted Knox was on offense. He attacked the rim on multiple occasions (and I think he's one or two more offseason weight training programs from becoming a much more effective finisher). Then Knox started to take jumpers as defenders slowed their approaches to avoid blow bys. Then Knox drove again but found Mitchell Robinson for an alley-oop. Each attack fed into a new, equally effective approach the next time down. That's the upside this 20 year old kid has.
Frank: With the success of Elfrid Payton and Dennis Smith Jr, it looked like Frank Ntilikina might be the odd man out of the PG rotation...and in a way he was. That's because Mike Miller switched to using Ntilikina like a defensive specialist and secondary ball handler. Frank played mainly in 2 PG sets with Payton or Smith being the primary ball handler while he took possessions once in awhile or just fed off of swing passes. The French Prince really utilized those swing passes well too. In the fourth quarter during crunch time, Frank knocked down a three and followed it up with a floater.
The young guard put up 9 points, 7 boards and 2 assists on 4/7 shooting over a 23 minute span. Let's focus on the rebounding though, because it highlights the intangibles that Frankfurters always shout out. Aside from the 2 clutch baskets, it was what Frank did defensively and on the glass that stood out late. He grabbed multiple rebounds late including an offensive board with 10 seconds on the clock in regulation. That meant a second chance at a game winner for the Knicks and guaranteed overtime to win the game. In the OT, Ntilikina had another stand out moment fighting the ball out of Larry Nance's hands so that someone else could get a defensive rebound. None of this is to mention the handful of times where Frank blew up offensive plays for the Cavs by defending two or three guys in a single sequence. This is what it means to impact the game without the ball in your hands, to make winning plays without even needing a touch.
Portis: The jumper was on point for Bobby Portis and he used it to grab 12 points on 5/8 from the field and 2/5 from three over a 28 minute run. He didn't contribute much else though, just 1 board, 1 steal and 2 TO's. Portis also had some struggles defensively being the culprit of a few miscommunications on the switch and also giving too much space to shooters on those occasions. But I don't want to bury him for those struggles because his shooting really did open up the floor for everyone else, especially DSJ.
Mitch: It's not like Mitchell Robinson had a bad game, but he just felt very quiet in this one. That's probably because with so many other players doing more than normal, Mitch saw less opportunities inside and with both teams shooting lights out he also saw less chances to impose his will on the boards. The Mook/Randle front court shift also cut into his minutes out there. So in 15 minutes Robinson posted 4 points, 2 boards, 1 assist and 1 steal on 2/2 shooting but also the second highest plus/minus on the team. All of this is to say...he wasn't bad by any means, just more quiet than we're used to.
Miller: So three aspects of Miller's coaching stood out in this game. One was the decision to turn Frank into a multi-positional defensive player to find the kid minutes. Frank played a few minutes at PG, then some time at SG and then closed the game at SF. On a night with so little defense played, Frank's presence became necessary and rewarding.
The next was to let Morris and Randle be the lone two big men on the floor, a small ball shift that isn't even really small ball. This rotation has always made some sense and it worked really well offensively but also left the Knicks very susceptible defensively. It's the type of move I've wanted to see and also an experiment I'd like to see more of when the Knicks need offense.
Last highlight...the Knicks seemed to score out of every damned timeout Miller took. Time management and efficacy out of time outs have improved moreso than anything else since Miller took over and last night those two aspects were crucial to forcing overtime and winning the game. Miller had himself a hell of a night coaching. His fingerprints were all over the win and that's how it's going to be. This team isn't the most talented, they need smart management, some hot hands and a bit of luck to even beat weaker competition. But they're capable of beating the bad ones and Miller helped with that last night.
the incompetence 
