Breaking: Knicks’ Defense Suffers from Rim Protection Woes
28-for-36. That is what opponents are shooting at the rim against Karl-Anthony Towns this season.
71.5%. That is what Knicks’ opponents are shooting at the rim this season. One of the worst in basketball.
3.7. That’s the blocks per game by the Knicks, 28th in the NBA.
Compare some of these numbers to last season:
Opponents shot just 53.1% at the rim against Isaiah Hartenstein last season. Teams shot just 63.5% at the rim against the Knicks, and the team averaged only 4.1 blocks per game.
The first two were elite numbers. The latter is poor but pure blocks don’t matter if you are doing great at preventing open shots underneath.
The Knicks have only improved in one category here: they’re allowing less shots at the rim. But if your opponents are practically walking down there when they try to get to the rim? That’s bad
