Knicks continue offensive attack against Grizzlies, but defense is still a work in progress: “We need to finish games better”

The Knicks continued their dominance at home Tuesday night, defeating the Grizzlies 133-120, extending their winning streak to five games and starting the season 7-0 at MSG.

New York showed a lot of what made them dangerous to begin with. They stifled the Grizzlies defense for 78 first-half points and forced 11 Memphis turnovers. If you saw the final score, you’d think it was a much closer game, and the Knicks would tell you it shouldn’t have been.

Despite their offensive explosion in the first half, the Grizzlies outplayed them in the second, outscoring the Knicks 66-56. And first-year head coach Mike Brown he pointed out his team’s defensive mistakes in his opening statement after Tuesday’s win.

"In the first half we did a really good job in a lot of areas… and our transition defense in the first half wasn’t great, but it was okay against a team like that," Brown said. "According to our measurements, in the first half they had 16 points on the break against us. The second half, we gave up. We didn’t get back like we should have…we didn’t play by our rules and they made layup after layup after layup against us in transition, which gave them confidence…29 fastbreak points to a team in one half will kill you. Especially when you have 11 turnovers in that half. We were also careless with the ball… We hope to grow from this and try to get 48 minutes in the next game because in those two areas we didn’t do a good job."

The Knicks hope to put together that full 48-minute performance in their second straight game Wednesday against the Magic, but they wasted an opportunity for extra rest as they allowed the Grizzlies to hang. One positive is that New York is expected to have a downtown Mitchel Robinson in the lineup after sitting out Tuesday due to injury management. Brown was asked about the defense and Robinson’s role in it, but the coach didn’t want that to be an excuse.

"It wasn’t about Mitch; they killed us during the transition," he said. "Give them credit because they kept fighting, but we could have had anyone on the pitch, it would have been bad. We didn’t do a good job of coming back, we didn’t do a good job of following our rules as we came back."

Even though the Knicks let Memphis hang around in the second half, the offensive performance they put in allowed them to hang on. The team scored over 130 points in their third consecutive game, which is the first time in franchise history.

Jalen Brunson he was fantastic, scoring 32 points while grabbing five rebounds and dishing out 10 assists. He now ranks third in franchise history Stefon Marbury AND Ray Williams for the most 10/30/5 performances as a Knick (five).

But even the captain was not satisfied with how his team finished Tuesday’s match.

"Yes, we are clicking (in attack), more importantly, we need to finish games better," Brunson said. "No matter what happens offensively, there will be times where we don’t make shots and things like that. But we have to improve defensively, no matter what. This must be our goal moving forward."

Brunson says the mistakes are the product of late communication or simply a lack of communication, but he was encouraged by the team’s offensive production, especially in the first half.

"The ball moves, they challenge each other, they play catch," Brunson said. "When the ball comes in like that, it’s nice to see."

The Knicks shot 55% (39.3% from three) with 19 assists in the first two quarters. This is a product of Brown’s offensive system accelerating the team’s production.

After New York’s win over the Nets on Sunday, the team was the No. 1 offense. 2 in the league and led the league in three-pointers per 100 possessions.

They will look to continue that on Wednesday against the Magic, where they will look to go a perfect 8-0 at home this season.