How the Knicks’ offense continues to be exposed

CHARLOTTE, NC — They were back-to-back games in the worst offensive half of the season, a stretch emblematic of a problem Josh Hart worries will become the plan to dismantle the Knicks’ scoring weapons.

With about 7:15 left in the second quarter, Jalen Brunson’s defender, Quentin Grimes, was screened by Karl-Anthony Towns. The screen was weak, almost nonexistent, but Grimes still shifted to defend Towns as Maxi Kleber took care of Brunson on the ball.

The Knicks (10-8) naturally and predictably chased the size mismatch. Towns caught a pass at the top of the key and struggled against the much smaller Grimes, who is an adequate defender and deceptively strong. Towns painstakingly backed him up, using three dribbles to get to the paint before he was quickly met with a double team.

The hook shot didn’t even touch the rim.

About 30 seconds later, the same mismatch developed after a shift. Hart threw the ball in the post to Towns, who backed down too hard on Grimes and was whistled for a charge.

Turnover.

The Knicks at that moment failed to score on six balls in a row. They followed up their lowest-scoring quarter in the first with their lowest-scoring half.

They lost by 24.

“We give the teams the game plan,” Hart explained after Wednesday’s 129-114 loss.

This was not the first time Hart had expressed this concern. For all the scoring juice the Knicks have squeezed out this season, they’ve shown a pretty consistent weakness against “teams that switch, teams that break the game,” Hart said, noting that the Rockets and Celtics also punished the Knicks with this. strategy.

He predicted the Hornets, whom the Knicks face on Black Friday afternoon, will do the same under rookie head coach Charles Lee, a former Celtics assistant.

Hart, in turn, offered two solutions: Either use himself more often in pick-and-rolls, which would change rotations and defenders who turn on the screener; or, more simply, attack the contacts with more tempo.

“We’ve got to adjust accordingly, whether it’s putting me in the actions and still getting (the center) involved and doing that. Or playing faster, playing with more drive,” Hart said. “And getting teams to mess up changing. We have a skilled team. Guys who can shoot the ball. So when we play slow, we are easy to guard. Because we are going against solid defenses.”

To be clear, the switch wasn’t the only reason the Knicks were locked in the first half against the Mavericks. They shot poorly across the board, including Hart, who threw a few shots near the rim and threw a one-armed turnover like he was Daniel Jones in the red zone.

But the Mavericks were also very comfortable throwing their defenders all over the court. There was little regard for tasks.

“There’s a new challenge every day,” Towns said. “I can guarantee you, (Mavericks coach) Jason Kidd is a heck of a coach. He looked at the game and found ways he could play against us. He did a good job. They were ready.”

Hart recognized the problem. The Knicks settled into an ineffective half-court set rather than the fluid offense that led the Knicks to 145 points on 45 assists in a Denver win just two nights before.

In Dallas, they had 20 assists.

“It brings us to a standstill. When teams switch, we have to play faster,” Hart said. “We have to put them in a position to make mistakes without the ball, off screening, miscommunication, things like that.

“When we’re playing slow, you know they’re switching and we’re just trying to find a mismatch. And then it doesn’t matter if we have a mismatch when you have to play a set of defenses at the back. So we had to play faster, make them make mistakes and capitalize that way.”

Brunson agreed.

“Obviously they switched,” the point guard said. “When it comes to switching, you probably have to attack it a little bit quicker. But it’s a mix of the ball not going in and good looks and then they play good defense at times as well. It honestly shouldn’t happen, as it happened.”

Unsaid, but just as important, the Mavericks owned a top-10 rated defense (ranked 7th) with versatility throughout the lineup, especially when Luka Doncic is out injured. The same goes for the Celtics (8th) and Rockets (2nd). The Hornets, on the other hand, are placed in 19th place.

So while Charlotte (6-12) is trying to exploit a Knicks weakness, it hasn’t demonstrated the commitment or ability to make it work. There are only so many of Houston’s Dillon Brooks in the NBA, the type of defender who can handle both Brunson and Towns.

But the Knicks will have to face these teams for a long season or, more importantly, in the playoffs. That’s another thing to figure out.