Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
After the first half of basketball tonight at Captial One Arena, I was beginning to wonder if the Knicks were actually playing an NBA team. The fact that they barely made it to 40 plus points is a summary of this season so far. They did make a late run in the fourth quarter that seemed to put some energy back into the arena, but Kuz and the crew just could not get it done again tonight against the Knicks.
The Knicks were led by their one-two punch combo or Julius Randle (39 points) and Jalen Brunson (33 points) to give the Wizards all the could handle. The swift passing and finding other players open when the Wizards doubled Randle was a huge factor in the Knicks win tonight.
The Wizards now a horrendous (6-29) briefly recovered to cut the deficit to five in the third quarter, but the Knicks finished the game out with a double-digit lead for the final 15 minutes.
Tonight’s loss was the third time within a week that the Wizards have lost by more than double digits. The two games on the road against Cleveland were far worse than the result tonight, but a reoccurring pattern even when Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma contribute big in the scoring department.
Washington opened the second half with a 19-5 run and cut the lead to 68-62 on Kuzma’s 3-pointer with 7:59 left ,and prompted the Knicks to use a third timeout when another trey by Kuzma made it 74-69 with 5:26 remaining.
However, New York outscored Washington 17-6 for the rest of the quarter and led 91-75 going into the fourth.
Washington gets right back at it on Monday when they face a surging Oklahoma City Thunder team.