NBA: Question marks at New York Knicks

The supposed top games on Tuesday both became clear and left question marks for the New York Knicks, while Luka Doncic dominated against the Cleveland Cavaliers, contributing to another significant record for LeBron James. Things got ugly between the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns.

This article will be continually updated.

Mini crisis of the week: New York Knicks

The Magic showed the previous week how to lose a lot of games after a winning streak. After the 94:111 against the Houston Rockets, the Knicks have “only” three bankruptcies in a row after seven wins, but the way they played leaves question marks almost two weeks before the start of the playoffs.

The Rockets won the first quarter 37:21, and there was hardly any sign of a serious comeback attempt by the Knicks afterwards. Houston defended Karl-Anthony Towns with a winger in most situations, which caused major problems for the Knicks’ offense, although Towns had a solid game with 22 points (7/17 FG) and 8 rebounds.

Alperen Sengun, however, was able to rely on opponents like OG Anunoby (8, 2/8 3P) or Mikal Bridges (7, 3/4 FG, 4 assists), who were hardly able to exploit their supposed advantages in speed and agility against the big man. The Knicks’ offense seemed very lost on a day when Jalen Brunson (12, 1/5 3P, 8 assists) couldn’t save them. The spacing and pace at New York seemed very laborious.

On the other side, a completely different picture was seen, especially among the Rockets’ starters every player looked like a threat, among the reserves Reed Sheppard single-handedly provided support with 20 points (8/12 FG). Kevin Durant was the top scorer with 27 points (4/7 3P) and 8 assists, all starters scored at least 13 points (Sengun, 4/5 FG, 10 assists).

Thanks to the Cavs’ loss, the Knicks (48-28) are still one game out of fourth place and 2.5 games behind the Boston Celtics above them. The Rockets (46-29) stay level with the Minnesota Timberwolves thanks to their third win in a row, and the tiebreaker puts the Wolves in fifth place ahead of Houston.

MVP of the night: Luka Doncic

The Los Angeles Lakers (50-12) have won 13 of their past 14 games and were the much better team against Cleveland (47-28), giving the Purple and Gold its position in third place in the West with a two-win lead over the charging Denver Nuggets (6 wins in a row). Doncic made sure of that.

The Slovenian scored 42 points on 13/26 from the field and 6/13 triples, and in just under 34 minutes as a starter he also played 12 assists without a single turnover. All Lakers starters and reserve player Rui Hachimura scored at least 14 points, and Jake LaRavia hit each of his five field throws.

For the Cavs, Donovan Mitchell (10, 4/10 FG, 6 assists) and Evan Mobley (6, 2/4 FG) in particular remained below their performance standards; on the second evening of a back-to-back, the Cavs’ starters were quickly put into rest mode and none of them got many minutes. For Jarrett Allen, 18 minutes were enough for 18 points (9/11 FG).

Doncic became the third-youngest player in NBA history to score 15,000 points in his career, only Kevin Durant and LeBron James did it younger than the great guard (27 years, 32 days).

Milestone and highlight tape of the night: James inspires and breaks a record

Speaking of James… Wow! With the victory, James broke another long-standing record set by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the King now also sits on the winner’s throne with 1,229 games won in his career. Against the Cavs, LeBron made sure that he wasn’t just a free rider on the way to this success. And how!

After just five seconds of play, James reminded fans on social media of one of his most legendary moments, his chasedown block against Andre Iguodala in the NBA Finals. At 0-0 the situation was of course different, but the athleticism was no less impressive for a 41-year-old. “Not that easy, Donny,” James probably thought to himself as he blocked Mitchell, probably with more profanity.

James put up 14 points (4/8 FG), 5 rebounds and 6 assists. Early in the third quarter, the Lakers were already leading 78:63, and the Cavs no longer gave the appearance of much resistance. However, LeBron didn’t want to take it easy, instead he ran the fast break with determination and smelled his chance for the next highlight. Austin Reaves had the same idea and threw the ball high towards James, who scored with a bang from the air and created an exuberant atmosphere in the home arena.

Mud battle of the night: Magic take down Suns

Their fans at the Kia Center and the Magic themselves are unlikely to complain about a win these days, regardless of form. Especially not against a dangerous opponent in the Phoenix Suns (42-34), there was also tension in the 115:111.

Nevertheless, the duel was very mixed at times; at the break the game was already characterized by 26 turnovers, 47 free throws and 41 fouls, including technical fouls for Dillon Brooks, Devin Booker, Desmond Bane, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, who was verbally involved on the sidelines in street clothes.

With 14 of his 34 points (8/16 FG), Booker provided some decent offensive basketball in the third quarter (38:24 for Suns), before things became very defensive in the final period (21:17 for Orlando). After a long lead over the first 36 minutes, razor-thin leads changed hands; Orlando held one of these narrow leads for the final minutes. Booker cut it to -2 with 3.1 seconds left, and Tristan da Silva (9, 3/11 FG) sealed the win with two free throws.

The Magic won despite 25 turnovers after their historic 28-turnover disgrace against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday (87:139) because they held the Suns to 40 percent shooting and 20 turnovers of their own. Desmond Bane (21, 6/16 FG) was the Magic’s top scorer, Jamal Cain showed significant improvement with 12 points (4/5 FG) and 3 steals without turnovers in 20 minutes. Against the Raptors he committed 6 turnovers in 8 pointless minutes.

At Phoenix, Brooks made his return after missing almost five weeks due to his broken left hand, and after just 89 seconds he received the first technical foul of the game. There were five regular fouls in 22 minutes on the floor, but he wasn’t able to shine much with points (9, 4/13 FG).

Unstoppable Steamroller of the Night: Jalen Duren

If Jalen Duren keeps this up, he’ll need this category all to himself next year. It wasn’t a whole week ago that he hit 10/12 FG for 30 points against the New Orleans Pelicans, just a few games before that he hit 13/17 FG for 36, before that he hit 12/15 FG for 30, and so on. Even before Tuesday’s game, Duren was averaging 21.7 points on 66.7 percent from the field in March.

He ended his month very successfully with 31 points on 12/13 from the field and led the Pistons to a 127:116 win against the Toronto Raptors; neither Scottie Barnes (5, 12 assists) nor Jakob Pöltl had anything to counter the powerhouse. Detroit (55-21) celebrated its first division title in 18 years and is 4.5 games ahead of the first challenger in the East, the Boston Celtics.

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