The Knicks suffered turnovers for the second straight game in a loss to the Clippers
Los Angeles – The other day, coach Mike Brown urged his players to carry the ball.
As he puts it, control the things that are controlled.
They did not listen.
The Knicks committed 20 turnovers in their second straight slopfest in LA, this time falling 126-118 to the Clippers on Monday night at the Intuit Dome. The loss felt sealed, fittingly, with back-to-back Knicks turnovers in the final 3:05 — one by Jalen Brunson, the other by Landry Shamet.
But the Knicks still had hope until Shamet and OG Anunoby missed a pair of three-pointers in the final 25 seconds.
So the Knicks (41-25), who allowed 24 points, left Southern California with consecutive losses. It was marred by a rare high-scoring performance from Karl-Anthony Towns, who dropped 33 points on 12-for-16 shooting. It was the first time he scored 30 points since December.
But the Knicks couldn’t overcome the turnover. Anunoby was the sloppiest of the four. Brunson, Towns and Josh Hart all had three.
In Sunday’s bad loss to the Lakers, the Knicks committed 18 turnovers, causing Brown to list that as the main problem along with too much offense and bad rebounding.
His team was much better on Monday’s return. They were a little better at avoiding stupid mistakes. They were very bad at repenting.
Mikhal Bridges, who went scoreless in Sunday’s loss to the Lakers, didn’t score until midway through the second quarter against the Clippers. He finished with seven points in 26 minutes and was benched during the shootout. His backup at two guard, Shamet, struggled as he missed his first eight 3-pointers. Shamet closed the gaps and finished with nine points on 3-for-12 shooting, with all efforts coming from beyond the arc.
Brunson, on the other hand, got into the deep end of the shooting range and quickly righted the ship on Monday. He scored 13 in the first quarter with three assists and two rebounds.
“You’re human and you’re going to have some nights [when he struggles to shoot],” Brown said. It’s not something I’m worried about or looking at. And like I said, if he has a night like that, how can he affect another game, and he’s shown that he can.”
Brunson was cooking in the first quarter. Then the Cities took charge.
Brook Lopez was slow and struggled to defend Towns last season with the Bucks.
Downs finished the first half with 21 points – including 17 in the second quarter – but New York’s defense failed, and the Knicks went into halftime with a nine-point deficit.
It was the first time since December 27 that both Brunson and Towns had at least 25 points in the same game.
“They’ve stepped up and done different things at different times. Both can score, but what I like especially lately, big players have a way of impacting the game on both ends of the floor,” Brown said before Monday’s clunker. “They’re both trying to do that in a lot of different ways. There might be nights where KAT doesn’t score, but the man does it again and again.”
On Monday, the two were in sync but it didn’t matter.
The good news for Knicks fans is the schedule just gets better. They face bad teams in six of their next seven games, including Wednesday at Utah and Friday at Indiana.
A chance to reunite after a series of bad results in La-La land.
