New York Knicks sixth man Immanuel Quickley has played fantastic basketball over the past few months, and he continued that Monday with a great performance off the bench in the Knicks’ 109-94 victory over the Boston Celtics.
Quickley finished with 23 points (his most points in a game since Jan. 9), three rebounds, two assists, one steal, and shot 7-13 from the field and 4-7 from three-point range in the victory that saw New York win their sixth consecutive game and also overtake the Brooklyn Nets for the Eastern Conference’s fifth seed.
“God is great, we’ve been getting wins,” Quickley said postgame Monday. “Everybody’s working hard, coming in, getting work in. Our chemistry together is on another level, so we just wanna continue to keep doing that. Everybody’s playing together and that’s what we’re gonna keep doing.”
Immanuel Quickley via MSG Network
The performance put Quickley on the map for strong consideration of winning the league’s Sixth Man of The Year award, as he has quickly (pun intended) developed into one of the league’s most reliable bench players.
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Knicks’ Immanuel Quickley outplayed Sixth Man of The Year frontrunner Malcolm Brogdon:
As Monday’s game progressed, it became a battle of the sixth men as Celtics’ Malcolm Brogdon – who is seemingly the frontrunner to win the 6MOY award this season – was giving the Knicks fits all night with his strong finishing.
Brogdon would finish the night with a team-high 22 points, two rebounds, two assists, one steal, and shot 10-16 from the field, but his efforts were not enough as Quickley out-dueled him to put the Knicks on top.
Quickley was seemingly everywhere right from the get-go Monday, scoring 10 points in 14 minutes and knocking down two three-pointers in the first half as the Knicks entered the half up by 14 points.
Quickley would then provide 13 more points off the bench in the second half, and the Knicks never looked back. His steady development on both ends of the ball has made the Knicks a deep squad that could make some serious noise in the playoffs.
The vibes are really good surrounding the Knicks right now, and there are a lot of reasons to be excited about what this year’s squad is capable of doing.
Quickley and the Knicks will look to further extend the winning streak when they take on the Brooklyn Nets for a home game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
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