The New York Knicks' hopes of snapping a seven-game skid quickly vanished after facing a hot-shooting Denver Nuggets team that made the most of the myriad of open looks they had Thursday night. Knicks coach David Fizdale was once again frustrated with his team's perimeter defense, urging that his team must be consistent closing out on shooters before they can end the streak of eight straight losses they find themselves on.
“The three-point line killed us again, so until we figure that out, we're going to keep feeling this pain,” head coach David Fizdale said to start his postgame press conference, according to SNY's Ian Begley. “Sickening. They'll have to re-watch it, just like I'm going to watch it three or four times. They're going to have to suffer through it as well.”
New York allowed Denver to shoot 21-of-39 from deep (53.8%) — a mark most teams wouldn't survive. That materialized into a second straight blowout, losing by 37 points days after losing by 44 to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks also cakewalked their way to a win, shooting a sparkling 16-of-35 (45.7%) from deep, even as their starters only play 20.6 minutes in between them.
“Nobody's happy about what just happened, but again, at least to their credit, they're owning it. They understand that we've got to get better at getting to three-point shooters,” said Fizdale after a 129-92 loss to Denver. “We can't keep allowing these teams to shoot clean threes. It's blowing games open for them right now, so we'll just keep working on our close-outs, we'll keep working on our rotations, we'll keep watching that film, and at some point we'll find our breakthrough.”
The Knicks are now 4-18 and looking like they're more likely to challenge for a high draft pick than contention in the Eastern Conference. Until this young team can start to limit opponents' perimeter shooting and show some resistance, the Knicks will have a hard time getting any Ws.
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