When you cut off the head of the snake, everything changes.
The Knicks, still stinging from Cam Thomas’ 43-point explosion in Friday’s narrow victory over their cross-bridge rival Nets, made sure not to let history repeat itself on Sunday, when the Nets returned for a second game against the same team just 48 hours later.
This time, New York took the floor with a clear mission: disrupt Thomas early, limit his impact, and secure a more decisive win.
The adjustment paid off. Instead of assigning Mikal Bridges to guard Thomas, as they did on Friday, Tom Thibodeau switched defensive stopper OG Anunoby onto Brooklyn’s star scorer. The result was palpable: Thomas, who had torched the Knicks for 17 first-quarter points and five made threes in Game 1, never found his rhythm.
Anunoby smothered Thomas from the opening tip, holding him to just 13 points in the first half and 16 for the game on 4-of-11 shooting. Thomas managed just one three-pointer on four attempts, a stark contrast to his effortless scoring display just two nights prior. The Knicks’ defensive strategy suffocated Brooklyn’s offense, and the Nets never mounted a serious challenge in a wire-to-wire 114-104 Knicks victory at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
“Playing the same team twice, not easy to do,” Thibodeau said after the game. “To come out, play hard on both sides of the ball, I thought our rebounding was good, defense was good. So just keep going, keep getting better.”
Karl-Anthony Towns’ return from a knee contusion also played a crucial role in the win.
Without Towns on Friday, the Knicks relied on Jericho Sims and rookie Ariel Hukporti to anchor the center position, but his presence on Sunday was a reminder of what the Knicks look like on both ends of the floor when their All-Star big man is on the floor.. Towns dominated in the paint and showcased his versatility, finishing with 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 assists. His physicality at the rim and ability to create for teammates set the tone for New York’s success on both ends of the floor.
Towns took a hard fall toward and landed on his tailbone toward the end of the third quarter, then grimaced in pain a couple possessions later after getting fouled on a drive to the rim.
“It’s all good,” Towns said with a smile after the game. “29 [years old] is just a little different. I’m not gonna lie to you.”
Thibodeau limited Towns’ minutes after the scare, though Towns was playing in foul trouble and finished the game with five fouls.
“Just how the game was going. We had the lead. They were small, and we wanted to do more switching,” he said. “So we just were reading how it was going.”
While the Knicks successfully neutralized Brooklyn’s lead guard, another troubling trend persisted: defending the three-point line.
The Nets connected on 17 of their 41 three-point attempts, shooting 41.5% from deep. Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith each went 4-of-7 from downtown, Dennis Schroder and Noah Clowney added two triples apiece, and second-year forward Jalen Wilson chipped in three treys for 15 points off the bench.
“They’re a very good offensive team. They play fast or small, they can shoot, so it requires you to do more than one thing. [Ben] Simmons inverts you. He can handle the ball, and they run offense through him,” said Thibodeau. “Cam Thomas is a load to deal with, and [Dorian] Finney-Smith, he plays practically every position on the floor, so you have to be aware if someone other than the center picks up their center, the communication has to be great so you’re not leaving someone wide open. So that requires everyone being tied together, so i thought the communication was a lot better tonight, but we have a lot of work to do, and we have to keep getting better.”
Anunoby, who excelled on both ends, finished with 24 points and 8 rebounds. Bridges, facing his former team for the second straight game, added 21 points on 9-of-18 shooting. Meanwhile, the Nets’ defensive focus on Jalen Brunson paid dividends, as the Knicks captain struggled to find his shot. Brunson scored just 12 points on 3-of-14 shooting but offset his offensive woes with 10 assists.
“That’s what I love about Jalen. He’s gonna keep going,” said Thibodeau. “And the most important thing to him, he doesn’t care if he’s 3-for-25. As long as we win, Jalen feels good, and that says a lot about him, and we have a number of guys that are like that.”
Miles McBride missed his second consecutive game, the first due to an illness and Sunday’s due to a knee issue, but Cam Payne stepped up and hit three big 3s for nine points off the bench.
The back-to-back victories push the Knicks above .500 at 7-6 as they prepare for the second leg of a back-to-back against the struggling Washington Wizards (2-10) on Monday.
Despite a slow start to the season, the Knicks face a favorable schedule in the coming weeks. Their five-game, 10-day road trip features matchups against shorthanded Phoenix, rebuilding Utah, underperforming Denver, powerhouse Dallas, and fast-paced Charlotte.
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