The last lengthy homestand of the season for the New York Knicks is off to a historically good start. The Denver Nuggets’ longest road trip of the season isn’t going nearly as well.
New York hosts Denver on Wednesday night in a battle of potential NBA title contenders.
Both teams were off Tuesday after playing Monday, when the Knicks led nearly wire-to-wire in a 143-106 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, while the Nuggets frittered away a 10-point lead they held in the third quarter and fell to the Chicago Bulls, 129-121.
The Knicks completed their most prolific back-to-back stretch in almost 60 years, after rolling to a 143-120 win over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night to open the five-game homestand.
New York last scored at least 140 points in consecutive games from Dec. 11-14, 1965, when the Knicks beat the Baltimore Bullets 150-127 and edged the San Francisco Warriors 141-137.
Mikal Bridges (28 points) led seven Knicks in double figures Monday night as they trailed just once — at 2-0 — and dominated the Grizzles on both ends of the floor. New York outscored Memphis 83-54 after halftime and finished the game with 20 steals, the second-most by an NBA team in a game this season. The Atlanta Hawks had 22 steals against the Toronto Raptors on Dec. 29.
New York, now 6-6 against teams currently in playoff positions, will close out its homestand by playing four straight teams who are among the top six in the Western Conference. The Los Angeles Lakers are slated to visit Saturday night, followed by the Houston Rockets on Monday night.
“They’re a tough matchup — that’s a good test for us,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of the third-place Grizzlies. “And we had to be tied together. I loved our overall activity. I thought our defensive activity was terrific. Big-time, multiple-effort game.”
The defensive effort hasn’t been stout over the last two games for the Nuggets, who have dropped consecutive contests for the first time since Dec. 25-27. Denver hasn’t lost three in a row since Feb. 9-14, 2024.
The Nuggets have given up a combined 262 points to the Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves — the most points surrendered by Denver in back-to-back games since it gave up 264 points in consecutive overtime wins over the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets from Oct. 28-29.
Denver allowed seven Bulls players to score in double figures Monday night and gave up 34 points in the fourth quarter, when Chicago was 13-of-24 from the field (54.2 percent), including 6-of-13 (46.2 percent) from 3-point land.
“We messed with the game,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “You let a team hang around and in that third quarter going into the fourth quarter, they literally just drove the ball down our throats and rebounded and went drive-and-kick three, drive-and-kick three, drive-and-kick three. All because we couldn’t guard the ball or wouldn’t get back.”
The defensive struggles squandered another mammoth game by Nikola Jokic. The three-time NBA Most Valuable Player posted another triple-double (33 points, 12 rebounds, 14 assists) while becoming the first player ever to go 10-of-10 from the field in a first half with at least eight assists.
–Field Level Media
