{"id":338938,"date":"2025-12-10T07:38:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T07:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/338938\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T07:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T07:38:07","slug":"knicks-starting-to-figure-out-who-we-are-advance-in-nba-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/338938\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks ‘starting to figure out who we are,’ advance in NBA Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO — The New York Knicks<\/a> have much bigger goals than anything they could accomplish right now, but checking off micro wins along the way can only help — the first being continuing to establish their identity.<\/p>\n

The Knicks advanced to the NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas with a convincing 117-101 victory<\/a> over the Toronto Raptors<\/a> on Tuesday night, their eighth victory in nine games.<\/p>\n

The wins are starting to look similar, with Jalen Brunson<\/a> setting the pace. Brunson scored 20 of his game-high 35 points in the first quarter, which helped offset Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> spending much of the quarter on the bench in foul trouble, and Brandon Ingram<\/a> powering Toronto with 17 points in the opening frame.<\/p>\n

More than anything, the Knicks’ opportunistic defense was on full display, holding the Raptors to just 13 points in the second quarter while outscoring them by 21.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

It’s different from how New York started the season, with a 3-6 record away from Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

“We’re starting to figure out who we are,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “Early in the season, we had a lot of injuries during the preseason, so I didn’t have a good feel for this team, or as good a feel as I needed to have, and that’s part of the reason why we [have struggled] on the road.”<\/p>\n

The Knicks’ top talent and continuity was previously able to carry them through, but now they are beginning to show signs of why many consider them a favorite to reach the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

Towns returned from a one-game absence due to left calf tightness to score 14 points and grab 16 rebounds, while Josh Hart<\/a> continued his strong play since returning to the starting lineup. Hart was 4-of-7 from 3 and finished with 21 points, six rebounds and four assists.<\/p>\n

Hart is shooting well over 40% from 3-point range since being reinserted as a starter on Nov. 24, and Toronto’s strategy of playing centers on Hart and daring him to shoot backfired like it did when these teams last played on Nov. 30.<\/p>\n

“I know this sounds crazy, but we still have a lot of room to grow on both sides of the floor,” Brown said. “We can be an extremely high-level defensive team.”<\/p>\n

The Knicks were knocked out of the NBA Cup in the quarterfinal round the past two years. This time, they advance to play the Orlando Magic<\/a> — and Desmond Bane<\/a> — for the second time in less than a week in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

A frustrated Bane threw a ball at OG Anunoby<\/a> in their game Sunday over a non-call on the other end. Not much was made of it following the Knicks’ 106-100 win, although Bane was fined $35,000<\/a> for the “hostile act.”<\/p>\n

The Magic and Knicks have played each other three times already, and familiarity could breed some contempt — especially with the extra financial incentives the NBA Cup brings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO — The New York Knicks have much bigger goals than anything they could accomplish right now, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-338938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}