That’s it for the New York Knicks‘ run in the 2024 NBA Cup. A loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the quarterfinals round is where their trip ends, just short of a showdown with the Milwaukee Bucks in Las Vegas.
As is custom, a trip to Madison Square Garden wasn’t uneventful for Trae Young. As the clock ticked down in the fourth quarter of the Hawks’ win, the point guard pretended to shoot dice at half court, signaling the team’s looming trip to Las Vegas.
When asked about it after the game, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson was blunt. “We should win the game if we don’t want him to do that,” he said postgame on December 11.
New York lost 108-100. Young finished with 22 points, 11 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal in 37 minutes, outplaying Brunson, who finished with only 14 points on 33% shooting.
As a result of their elimination from the tournament, the Knicks now have just one game scheduled over their next seven days. Perhaps the time off will help them fine tune issues like they faced against the Hawks.
Trae Young on Knicks Fans ‘It’s a Love-Hate Relationship’
In a postgame interview on the hardwood at Madison Square Garden, Young was asked about his relationship with the New York faithful.
“It’s [a] love-hate relationship,” the Hawks point guard said with a smile. “I got a lot of love and a lot of hate I guess from them, but I got a lot love from them too. It’s respect.”
On his game-ending celebration, Young told reporters after the win that he’d come up with it days prior.
“I planned that one with my little brother a few days ago,” Young said postgame. “We had talked about that and I knew what I was going to do. We were going to Vegas, so that’s what I had to do.”
Young told reporters he rolled an eight on the pretend dice.
“I rolled an eight,” Young continued. “And then I picked it up. And then I rolled it again. So I picked up the money after that and we left.”
It’s the latest chapter in an established story involving the Knicks and Young. He hasn’t gotten the last laugh, but he has had the most recent. Atlanta and New York will meet again this season on January 20.
Karl-Anthony Towns Responds to Knicks’ Inconsistencies
Leon Rose and the Knicks’ front office went all-in on two trades last summer. New York’s true ceiling is a ways away with the new starting five only having 25 games under their belt.
Karl-Anthony Towns, when speaking with reporters after the loss to the Hawks, said that the team is working every day. But that he can’t predict when things will straighten out for a long stretch.
“Obviously you just want to be the best you can be,” Towns told reporters. Miami Heat years ago with LeBron had a whole year before they figured out how to put a banner up…I can’t tell you. I don’t have a crystal ball. But I can tell you for us, for the fans, for the film, we show spurts of consistency. I think we show what we could be when things are clicking at a high level. I can’t tell you an exact time, but I can tell you that every day we’re working to be the best version of ourselves, and how we can consistently show that to the fans, to the city. I think that the fans and all y’all see what we’re trying to do.”
New York is 15-10, not even a third of the way through the year. Fans will either look back at the Hawks game and remember it fondly, as a moment that preceded the Knicks’ coming together and reaching their full potential, or they’ll wonder how the team’s coaching staff and front office ignored some obvious red flags.
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Jalen Brunson Has Blunt Response to Trae Young’s Trolling