{"id":128072,"date":"2025-03-11T14:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T18:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=128072"},"modified":"2025-03-11T13:58:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T17:58:22","slug":"pj-tuckers-knicks-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/11\/pj-tuckers-knicks-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"PJ Tucker\u2019s Impact On Knicks Felt Right Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Knicks brought in PJ Tucker<\/a>\u00a0on a ten-day contract this weekend<\/a>, no one felt it was for his play on the floor. However, they hoped the grizzled veteran would add championship experience and the hard-nosed mentality Tom Thibodeau loves. He was needed for a group that had lacked the fight of previous seasons after losing key members of that identity and replacing them with better, but less intense players. Mikal Bridges<\/a> and Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> have undoubtedly improved the team, but losing Donte DiVincenzo<\/a>, Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a>, and Julius Randle<\/a> removed an edge from this squad that they counted on to win games. It was only one night, but New York’s blowout win in Sacramento should give fans confidence it’s returning.<\/p>\n

PJ Tucker\u2019s Impact On Knicks Felt Right Away<\/h2>\n

Josh Hart<\/a> has been mired in a devastating shooting slump for over a month. Since January 1st<\/a>, he is hitting at just a 26.4% clip from downtown, causing a concerning drop in confidence. Lately, he’s refused to even shoot from deep, which has broken the Knicks’ offense. Hart, not willing to let it fly, allows defenses to double-team Jalen Brunson<\/a> (and now whoever else), completely destroying the five-out spacing that Leon Rose envisioned when trading for Towns.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most encouraging sign of last night’s 133-104 victory over Sacramento was Hart’s three-point barrage. He hit four of six from outside and looked confident pulling the trigger all game long. Tucker was constantly seen on the broadcast<\/a> pumping up all his teammates, but especially Hart. In a viral video, he loudly implored the Villanova product to “shoot that”, and Hart obliged. Whether or not he’s hitting, the Knicks need their swingman to be willing to let it fly. Otherwise, opponents will be able to defend four-on-five.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t just Hart playing with increased confidence, either. Bridges, Miles McBride<\/a>, and OG Anunoby<\/a> were all uber-aggressive offensively, combining for 60 points on 36 shots. Bridges and Anunoby attacked the rim with ferocity, which Knicks fans have begged them to do all season. This Knicks team simply played with some nastiness on Monday. They’ll need to maintain it, and Tucker is a big boost in that direction.<\/p>\n

New York Defended With Rare Hostility\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Again, it’s tough to say after one game whether Tucker is the reason for their renewed defensive intensity. They’ve actually been defending at a high level for a few games now, dating back to their overtime loss to LA. Brunson is one of their weakest defenders, so losing him makes a positive change on that end<\/a>. However, it has been rare to see Thibodeau’s group play with this fire on that end the way they did last night. Sacramento is a potent offense despite being without Domantas Sabonis<\/a>. They still had Zach LaVine<\/a>, Malik Monk<\/a>, and DeMar DeRozan<\/a> in the lineup, and New York completely shut them down wire-to-wire.<\/p>\n

NY forced 16 turnovers and scored 26 fast-break points to just eight for the Kings. This team is always at its best when they defend without fouling and get out in transition. It’s likely NY’s best formula for playoff success when they meet teams just as talented as they are, if not more. The Knicks are fourth in basketball in transition points-per-possession (1.17) but only rank 14th in frequency<\/a>. This is mostly because they’re never getting enough stops to consistently run. Whether it’s Tucker’s presence, Brunson out of the lineup, a renewed desperation without their captain, or a combination of all three, New York must keep it going if they want to win the East.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Knicks brought in PJ Tucker\u00a0on a ten-day contract this weekend, no one felt it was for his play on the floor. However, they hoped the grizzled veteran would add championship experience and the hard-nosed mentality Tom Thibodeau loves. He was needed for a group that had lacked the fight of previous seasons after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5412,"featured_media":128133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12],"tags":[1004,2282],"class_list":["post-128072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","tag-josh-hart","tag-pj-tucker"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128072"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128134,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128072\/revisions\/128134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}