Good things happen when the Knicks shoot threes.
Like a decisive road victory over a Western Conference opponent with a winning record.
The Knicks (41-23) tied their season-high with 22 threes made on 40 attempts to snap a three-game losing streak in a 133-104 rout of the Sacramento Kings (33-31) late Monday night.
New York improved to 1-2 on its five-game West Coast road trip after back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers. The Knicks will face the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday and have a rematch against the Golden State Warriors on Friday to complete their road swing.
And if Monday night was any indication, getting up threes at a higher rate could be key to surviving the month of March until Jalen Brunson can safely return from his right ankle sprain in the overtime loss to the Lakers.
The Knicks are now 14-4 when they attempt at least 40 threes in a game this season. They are also 18-4 in games where they make at least 15 threes this year.
Those numbers aren’t surprising when you consider the fleet of marksmen at Tom Thibodeau’s disposal on New York’s roster. The more jarring statistic this season is how infrequently a team capable of lighting it up from three actually makes use of one of its biggest strengths.
The Knicks rank just 27th this season in threes attempted per game (34.3) and are tied with the Philadelphia 76ers for 20th in threes made per game (12.7).
The narrative suggesting the Knicks don’t shoot threes this season went right out of the Golden 1 Center windows on Monday night.
Filling in for the injured Brunson, Miles McBride shot 4-of-5 from downtown and finished with 21 points and seven assists with no turnovers on the night. And after missing 62 of his previous 81 attempts from deep, Josh Hart broke free from a disastrous shooting slump to shoot 4-of-6 from deep in Sacramento.
“I felt good. I needed a game like that. Came to shootaround an hour to an hour and a half early, getting shots up. It just felt good to have a game like that,” Hart told reporters in Sacramento after the game. “It helps with the confidence. Then I just got to keep building off of that.”
Cameron Payne also came off the bench to shoot 2-of-3 from downtown. Payne’s first made three of the night was New York’s sixth in its first nine attempts. Coincidentally, his shot put the Knicks up by 20 points in the second quarter.
High-volume three-point shooting could become the new norm for a team looking to stay afloat while its captain and floor general recovers from an ankle sprain. The Knicks, for example, are notably 0-7 against the NBA’s three-best teams: the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Celtics lead the league in both threes made and attempted. The Cavaliers rank second in makes and fourth in attempts, and the Thunder are top-10 in both categories. The Warriors, considered a title contender after acquiring Jimmy Butler, are also top-four in both three-point attempts and makes.
The Knicks didn’t just bury the Kings beneath a bevy of treys late Monday night. They also took Sacramento’s three-point shot away — and three-point defense has been a sore spot for the Knicks this season.
The Kings shot just 10-of-34 from downtown against the Knicks. It’s worth noting Sacramento was on the second leg of a back-to-back after an emotional overtime loss to the Clippers on Sunday, while the Knicks were fully rested with two days off in-between games. The Kings were also without their All-Star center Domantas Sabonis.
The schedule is the schedule, and the Knicks took advantage. The victory should be a confidence-boosting moment for a team that took a gut punch when Brunson turned his ankle and limped off the Crypto.com Arena floors.
The Knicks won’t replace Brunson individually, even though McBride tried his best with a strong performance on Monday.
Instead, they will have to do it by committee. All five starters scored 15 or more points against the Kings, and the Knicks consistently strung together stops, turning defense into offense — oftentimes creating the kind of clean three-point look New York needs to hunt more often.
“Just overall defensive activity. I think being tied together, and they’re a hard team to guard, you got to fly around. You got to make a second, third effort. And when you do that, for us, that’s got to be our way,” said Thibodeau. “We’re not replacing Jalen individually. We can’t but we can do it as a collective. If we play like that, we have a chance.”