MIAMI — The Los Angeles Lakers are still at the bottom of the league in bench scoring. The New York Knicks are not — and that difference might define this stretch without two starters.
It’s why the Knicks are equipped to survive however long they’ll be without both Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby. Brunson missed Friday’s matchup against the Miami Heat with a sprained ankle, and Anunoby will miss at least two weeks after straining his left hamstring five minutes into the first quarter of the same game.
Without two key starters, the Knicks still walked out of Madison Square Garden with a 140–132 win. And while Brunson traveled with the team for the first leg of their five-game road trip, Anunoby did not, signaling that Mike Brown will need to reach deeper into his rotation to fill the wing minutes for the foreseeable future.
Brown expects his team to respond the way they always have.
“It’s about the next man up. Who that next man is going to be — I don’t know,” Brown said after Friday’s win. “I just know we all know how to play the right way. We have a standard we’re all bought into. We have a way we play offensively and defensively, and if we stay within that, good things will happen most times.”
Entering Monday’s rematch in South Beach, the Knicks sit tied with the Portland Trail Blazers for 16th in bench scoring at 36.6 points per game — a jump of nearly 15 points from last season, when the Knicks ranked dead last at 21.7 bench points per game. The closest team to them at the bottom? The Lakers, who finished 29th and rank 30th this year at just 24.2 bench points per game.
Los Angeles doubled down on star power, signing Deandre Ayton and further draining the second unit.
The Knicks did the opposite. They tackled last season’s biggest weakness head-on.
They signed former Sixth Man of the Year Jordan Clarkson on a minimum contract after his buyout with the Wizards. They used the mid-level exception on Guerschon Yabusele. And arguably their sharpest move was bringing back Landry Shamet, a postseason hero from their run to the Eastern Conference Finals, on a minimum deal with one of their final roster spots.
Shamet stepped in for the injured Anunoby and detonated for 30 second-half points in Friday’s win.
“We have a system that bodes well for connectivity,” Shamet said. “When the ball moves, it can be any one of us any night. We were just playing within our system. Sometimes shots find you. Play aggressive — it benefits everyone. The ball found me.”
Brown’s decision to return Mitchell Robinson to the starting lineup also strengthened the bench by shifting Josh Hart to the second unit. New York’s bench responded by scoring 75 of the team’s 140 points on Friday.
“It shows this team’s depth — and shows we’ve got guys who could start anywhere,” said Karl-Anthony Towns. “They just happen to be on the Knicks. We’re asking them to sacrifice what they could give any other team. Josh has shown that. Landry has shown that. This shouldn’t be surprising to NBA fans who’ve watched their careers.”
The Knicks will need to lean into that depth. Strange things happen in an 82-game season.
Last year, they lost three point guards at once and Robinson missed the entire front half of the schedule. This year, Robinson, Anunoby, Hart and Brunson have already missed stretches.
The Knicks have preached “next man up” for years. Now they finally have the roster to back it up.
“We always preach it — next man up — and games like Friday show we’re not just saying it,” Hart said. “Everybody in this locker room is capable of big nights, capable of contributing. When guys go out, obviously we don’t want that — but the next one’s ready to step up and hoop.”
