The New York Knicks have been struggling lately. They have lost four of their last five games and were flat-out embarrassed on their home floor against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.
The Knicks have struggled against better teams this season
Their struggles have made people question whether this team is a true title contender. Against the top two teams in both conferences, New York is 0-5 with a -86 point differential (h/t Underdog NBA).
Karl-Anthony Towns, however, downplayed their recent misfortunes and attributed them to what a long season entails.
“All 82 ain’t going to go perfect. I can tell you there’s going to be a lot of times we don’t look like the team that we were 4 weeks ago and we’re going to remind everyone a week later and then we’re going to be a whole other version 3 weeks from then,” Towns said (h/t Posting and Toasting).
The Knicks are being hurt by shooting woes and a lack of depth
Two main things have contributed to losing lately: three-point shooting and lack of depth. Over their last 10 games, the Knicks are shooting just 28% from three. They had their worst shooting performance of the season against the Thunder, as they shot just 4-for-32 from beyond the arc.
Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby combined to shoot 0-for-11 from downtown, and Bridges was scoreless in 32 minutes. The lack of depth behind them hurts New York, as they don’t have someone off the bench who can help pick up the slack of the starters.
The group of Miles McBride, Cameron Payne, Landry Shamet, and Precious Achiuwa has not performed well enough, and they are dead last in bench points per game this season. The Knicks have become too reliant on the starting five, a group that has been used in a much larger capacity than hoped thanks to the lack of depth.
Until significant changes are made, the Knicks will just have to snap out of their funk before the struggles continue to get worse. They will have the chance to get back in the win column Sunday afternoon against the Milwaukee Bucks.