DALLAS — A frustrated Jalen Brunson picked up a technical foul within the second quarter for complaining to a referee, and the purpose guard acknowledged it affected his play because the Knicks were pummeled in the primary half of a 128-124 loss to the Mavericks on Thursday night.
“Yeah, it’s tough. I can’t be in that mindset of letting things frustrate me,” said Brunson, who finished with 30 points but only shot 4 of 12 in the primary half. “I got to be higher. And we got to be ready from the beginning of the sport and that’s on me.”
After picking up the technical, Brunson claimed on the court that he was directing his words toward coach Tom Thibodeau, not referee Danielle Scott. He declined to elucidate his frustration after the sport, fearing a wonderful from the league.
“I like to maintain my money,” he said. “So I’m going to maintain my money.”
The Knicks were whistled for 25 fouls in comparison with Dallas’s 19 but took only two fewer foul shots. The discrepancy was quite a bit wider in the primary half.
“Hey look, sometimes — and I understand, I don’t really care if the sport was called tight or it was called loosely. I just want consistency,” Thibodeau said. “So there was some frustration there but that’s all a part of it. We’ve got to handle that.”
OG Anunoby was preparing to protect Luka Doncic. As a substitute, with Doncic ruled out the night prior with an ankle sprain, he drew Kyrie Irving and struggled to carry down the expert point guard.
“Just attempting to make him take probably the most difficult shots possible,” Anunoby said. “And he makes those shots on a regular basis. Not getting discouraged is the important thing.”
Irving finished with 44 points despite being hounded by the larger and stronger Anunoby, who did pretty much as good a job as possible for allowing that much scoring.
“We all know systems well. I had an idea about how they were going to protect me tonight,” Irving said. “But seeing OG for the vast majority of the sport, and he forced me into some tough decisions down the stretch. It was definitely a distinct Knicks team than I played last 12 months.”
The potential return of Mitchell Robinson to an increasingly stout defense has his teammate and good buddy Isaiah Hartenstein thrilled concerning the prospects of nonstop “high level” play in the center.
“It’s something that might be really great,” Hartenstein said. “I feel like even the second half of last season me and Mitch were sort of 50/50 on minutes. So when he comes back that’s 48 minutes of high-level center play. So I’m excited for him to come back back. I feel it’s something that’s going to take our team to a different level.”
Robinson has been out since Dec. 12 after undergoing surgery on his fractured left ankle. With news Wednesday that the league denied the Knicks’ application for a Disabled Player’s Exception for Robinson, there’s increased optimism of a Robinson return by the top of the regular season.
The Knicks applied for the DPE despite knowing there was a possibility Robinson could return, and the league’s review of the medical situation reinforced that it shouldn’t be a season-ending procedure.
About three years ago, Robinson underwent surgery on his fractured right foot and the recovery took longer than anticipated. Following his latest surgery, Robinson relayed feelings of dejection on social media. He even posted this week, “My mental health has been giving me hell this past week. So I’m going to be off social media for some time until I get myself back.”
“In the beginning of the surgery, you never know what can occur,” Hartenstein said Thursday. “There might be setbacks. There might be times where it goes faster. So he was sort of just — he wants to come back back before the season ends, but you never know with injuries like that, if there’s a setback, if it goes higher than expected. In order that’s sort of where he was at [when the injury first happened]. I feel him [potentially coming back] is something good for him, a degree where he can strive to. So I’m excited for him. I feel it’s going to assist him be more optimistic concerning the whole situation.”
A surging Julius Randle cracked the list of top All-Star voting.
The facility forward, who was nowhere to be found on the ballot’s top-10 first returns last week, is now eighth amongst Eastern Conference frontcourt players, rising above Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges, Orlando’s Paolo Banchero and Washington’s Kyle Kuzma.
Brunson stays sixth among the many Eastern Conference guards, but has greater than double the votes (759,640) than Randle (361,202).
Each Knicks are legitimate All-Star options, but Randle has little probability to be a starter with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Jayson Tatum within the East.
For the starters, fan votes account for 50 percent and players and media split the opposite 50 percent. Coaches select the reserves.
