It seemed there was little the New York Knicks could do to stop Luka Doncic, whose 60 points on December 27 carried the Dallas Mavericks to a 126-121 overtime win.
But the Knicks’ Quentin Grimes, arguably the team’s best perimeter defender, acknowledged after the game that he did what he could to stop the Mavs superstar.
“I promise I was trying for sure,” he said after the game, according to ESPN’s Tim McMahon.
Just days after scoring 50 points against the Houston Rockets, Doncic made NBA history with the league’s first 60-point, 21-rebound, 10-assist performance and only its second 60-point triple-double. Doncic scored the game-tying basket with 4.2 seconds left in regulation and then scored seven of the team’s 11 points in overtime.
Grimes Did His Best
Grimes, a second-year guard, said he tried to lock down Doncic but acknowledged how difficult that job can be.
“I mean, I’m trying to get over every pick-and-roll,” Grimes said, according to McMahon. “He’s in almost every action. It was a lot on me trying to get over every pick-and-roll with him. He’s crafty with the ball, without the ball. Have to know where he is at all times on the court. He’s one of the top three players in the league for a reason. I have to tip my hat.”
Doncic has been consistently putting up eye-popping numbers all season. He now has a 60-point game, a 50-point game and five games in which he topped 40 points. Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, one of the league’s top scorers over the past decade and a half, called them video game numbers. Doncic is averaging 33.6 points per game, just 0.1 points behind the league-leading Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers.
For what it’s worth, even though Grimes was beaten by Doncic for much of the night, he gave Knicks fans a lot to be encouraged about.
Grimes scored a season-high 33 points on 12-of-25 shooting, hitting seven of his 16 3-point attempts. He now has topped 20 points in three of his December games, far surpassing his 9.7 point-per-game season average. If these types of games become a regular occurrence for him, fans will see why the team prioritized keeping him in last summer’s rumored Donovan Mitchell trade talks.
Up & Down Month
The Knicks’ eight-game win streak was the team’s December highlight. It seemed they were trending toward closing out the year on a high note. However, the team now finds itself on a four-game losing streak with the loss to the Mavericks.
What’s encouraging about the stretch is the losses haven’t been blowouts, but they’ve come down to the wire. The Knicks have shown they can compete with the Mavericks and Sixers on any given night. Losses are still losses, but these haven’t cost the Knicks just yet.
New York still holds the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, a position that would let them skip the play-in tournament if the season were to end today. Not many people predicted them to be in this situation at this point in the season. The Knicks will upcoming games against the two worst teams in the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs.
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Knicks Starter Makes Stunning Admission After Luka Doncic Outburst