It will be a clash between the haves and the have-nots when the New York Knicks travel to San Antonio to face the Spurs on Wednesday in a late-season interconference game.
Both teams will be without star players for the foreseeable future. However, the Knicks are proving to be one of the league’s deepest teams while San Antonio is trying to find the pieces that will help it make an unlikely surge into the postseason.
The Knicks (43-24) fly into the Alamo City on the heels of a rousing 116-95 win at home over slumping Miami on Monday, in which New York came back from 13 down. Mikal Bridges poured in a game-high 28 points for the Knicks, who improved to 3-2 since Jalen Brunson was lost indefinitely with a sprained left ankle.
Eighteen of Bridges’ points came in the third quarter, during which New York outscored the Heat 41-15 to turn a two-point halftime deficit into an 88-64 lead. Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 23 points that included 15 unanswered in the second quarter.
“We started out slow and I wanted to add some energy to the game,” Towns said. “I got a chance to be aggressive … I wish I would’ve got more, but I was glad I was able to jump-start our offense so we could get this win.”
Josh Hart finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, matching a franchise record set by current Knicks broadcaster Walt “Clyde” Frazier in 1968-69 with his eighth triple-double of the season.
“My playing style is very sporadic, you never know what you’re gonna get,” Hart said. “For me to be in the same sentence or tied with a record like that is nothing but a blessing … from (Frazier) and my teammates.”
Miles McBride and Mitchell Robinson each had 10 points for New York. The Knicks have clinched a spot in the postseason and are currently in third place in the East, 5 1/2 games behind second-place Boston and five games clear of Milwaukee with 15 contests left in the regular season.
The Spurs begin a two-game homestand after a 125-109 loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles. Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 23 points in the loss while Devin Vassell had 17 points, Jeremy Sochan scored 15 and Keldon Johnson had 11.
San Antonio (28-39) has dropped five of its past seven games but is still in the running for a spot in the West play-in tournament. The Spurs are four games behind 10th-place Dallas with 15 games remaining, 10 of them against teams currently above the playoff line.
San Antonio trailed for all but the opening minutes on Monday. A 15-0 run bridging the third and fourth quarters allowed the Spurs to draw to within 13 points with just over 11 minutes to play but that’s as close as they would get.
“I think we gave ourselves a chance to come back and win the game early in the fourth,” Castle said. “I was happy we stayed in the fight. Nobody really hanged their head or gave up. We kept playing through the end.”
Castle continues his solid rookie season and should be part of a Spurs core in the future when combined with center Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox, who are out for the rest of the season with injuries.
“There’s no teacher like playing, so the fact that he’s (Castle) getting in-game reps means he gets a chance to see what it looks like in live-action,” Spurs point guard Chris Paul said. “(It’s) only going to continue to help him.”
