Knicks Receive Slight Boost in NBA.com’s Latest Power Rankings

The New York Knicks had a mixed week that posed some head-scratching questions. Last week, the Knicks suffered a brutal 108-100 to the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Cup quarterfinals. New York struggled defensively, especially down the stretch, with the game leaving more questions than answers for the playoff team.

Fortunately, the Knicks responded with a crucial 100-91 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday night. The win pushed New York past Orlando in the standings, and the Knicks are now the third seed in the Eastern Conference with a 16-10.

This hasn’t exactly been the start Knicks fans were hoping for, as it was expected that New York would be up there competing for the No. 1 seed and title contention with the Boston Celtics. While the defense has seen improvement since the first 10 games of the season, that has held New York back at times.

The win against the Magic bumped the Knicks up in John Schuhmann’s latest power rankings on NBA.com. Ranked eighth in the league last week, the defensive improvement saw them move into the seventh spot, right behind the Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Oklahoma City Thunder.

“The Knicks played just eight guys in both of their wins last week, with the eighth guy (Cameron Payne) totaling less than 23 minutes over the two games,” Schuhmann wrote. “For the season, the Knicks have gotten an average of just 60.9 minutes per game from reserves, which would be the lowest mark for any team in the last 19 seasons and 10 minutes per game fewer than any other team this season (Denver is 29th at 71.0).”

Depth has been an issue in New York’s season, as Mitchell Robinson continues to recover from injury. Schuhmann left readers with an interesting stat regarding the Knicks’ record against a much stronger Western Conference.

“The Knicks are 3-3 against the Western Conference, with five of the six games coming on the road,” Schuhmann wrote. “They’ll visit the Wolves and Pelicans (who they beat by 33 points on Dec. 1) this week.”

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