The victories dried up as surely as the blows stopped falling for the Knicks. Three consecutive loss losses canceled out the early buzz caused by the previous three-game winning streak.
RJ Barrett and the Knicks endured another quirky shooting night, while Gordon Hayward, who was out of season, fueled 28 of his 34 points in the first half of a 109-88 defeat Monday against the Hornets in Charlotte.
The Knicks (5-6) missed nine of their first ten goal attempts and shot just 39.5 percent off the field. It included a 5-for-18 performance – and five straight misses from three-point series – by Barrett, who finished with 11 points.
The number 3 overall pick in the 2019 draft shoots just 36.5 percent for the season and 18.0 percent from long distance, connecting with nine of the 50 attempts.
“I think it will come eventually,” Thibodeau said before the game over Barrett. ‘I think as long as he takes the right, it’s a big part of the NBA game, I think, to understand the value of those shots.
‘But there are many other things he does well. We want him to play an all-round game. He can place the ball, he can manage the ball well. And I think over time he will shoot the ball better and better from the perimeter. ”
Newcomer point guard Immanuel Quickley’s recent slump also continued with a shooting night of 1 for 9 in 28 minutes off the bench; he has shot just 10 points at 2-for-24 in his last four games.
Kevin Knox scored 17 of his season-high 19 points in the first half, while Austin Rivers started in place of Reggie Bullock – the first series in 11 games under Thibodeau – and finished with 13. Julius Randle (2-for-9) scored a season-low 11 points.
Impressive rookie point guard LaMelo Ball scored just eight points on 3-for-13 shooting for Charlotte (6-5), but he also contributed 14 rebounds, seven assists and three steals in the Hornets’ fourth straight victory.
The Knicks shot 39.1 percent off the floor and 31.3 percent (6-for-21) of three points in their previous two losses, after hitting at least 50 percent of their efforts in every game of the three-game winning streak. connected. .
“I think if you sometimes struggle to make shots, it takes away the other aspects of the game,” Thibodeau said. “But we were a very unselfish team. Some nights the ball will go in, some nights it will not.
“But we have to do all the other things to put ourselves in a position to win.”
Thibodeau knew his team needed to rediscover his shooting touch and play a representative defense against the Hornets, which improved with the addition of Hayward, their $ 120 million foreign season acquisition and Ball, the number 3 overall pick in the draft.
Thibodeau buzzed over both opposing players and Hayward noted that the Knicks had him rated ‘fairly high’ under free targets in the off-season.
The former Utah and Boston star scorched the Knicks for 28 points in the first half on 8 of 12 shots and ten successful free throw attempts. The Knicks spotted Charlotte the first ten points of the game and trailed by as many as 17 in the first quarter.
Knox kept the Knicks close by nailing five of his eight long-range attempts and concluding the half with 17, with a 57-50 lead over Charlotte.
The Knicks still committed 10 of their 16 turnovers in the first two quarters, and aside from Knox, the rest of the team was 1-for-13 from a three-point series. Hayward scored just four points in the third, but the Hornets extended their lead to 82-68.