Karl-Anthony Cities flashes his Knicks potential in preseason debut

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tom Thibodeau’s facilities didn’t try this earlier than.

On his second shot in a Knicks uniform Sunday, Karl-Anthony Cities pulled up from 27 toes and buried a 3-pointer, the primary glimpse at each the vary and confidence of New York’s star 7-footer.

Nevertheless, Cities struggled together with his shot after that conversion.

He missed 4 of 5 3-pointers and completed with 10 factors in quarter-hour because the Knicks beat the Hornets, 111-109.

Extra noteworthy was Cities being outrebounded by Charlotte heart Nick Richards, 8-4, earlier than sitting the second half.

Cities will bury his treys and area the ground — as he’s executed at a excessive clip his whole profession — however defending the rim and paint, each Thibodeau staples, are query marks.

On his earlier workforce, they had been sufficiently big issues for Minnesota to accumulate Rudy Gobert for these duties.

Thibodeau mentioned he was solely seeking to set up a “baseline” within the preseason opener, so the hope is there’s progress towards a cleaner sport and common rotation by the preseason finale on Oct. 18 in Washington.

“You’ve been going by means of coaching camp and so it’ll be good to go in opposition to some totally different faces,” the coach mentioned. “All of the issues we’ve been engaged on, to see it in a sport state of affairs. Simply get began.”

The Knicks unveiled their whole high-profile beginning 5 on Sunday, with Jalen Brunson at level guard, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges on the wings, and Cities at heart.

Brunson, enjoying his first sport as Knicks captain, was the beginning lineup’s main scorer and a sometimes artful ball handler, dropping 12 factors on 5 of 11 capturing with three assists.

He and Cities accounted for 22 of the starters’ 30 factors.

The group performed lower than a half, so the pattern measurement is minuscule.

However the shot distribution was attention-grabbing in that it might undertaking ahead, simply based mostly on Brunson and Cities being high-volume scorers.

Bridges, making his Knicks debut after main the Nets in scoring final season, tried solely 5 photographs with 4 factors.

He additionally drew the hardest defensive task in Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball.

Anunoby, simply handed a $212 million contract, had 4 factors whereas taking simply three photographs.

Hart, a daily triple-double producer final season, went scoreless on two photographs with one rebound and one help.

Thibodeau simply wished the reps.

“I feel it’s necessary for us as a result of Mikal clearly is new, KAT hasn’t performed with these guys, and OG performed in a really restricted period of time,” Thibodeau mentioned. “Principally you’ve bought a brand new beginning 5 that has to get acclimated to enjoying collectively. After which now we have a special bench, too, so these guys should get some work collectively as effectively.”

As anticipated, the Knicks’ second unit was Miles McBride, Valuable Achiuwa, Landry Shamet, Cam Payne and Jericho Sims.

McBride was aggressive with a game-high 22 factors on 18 photographs, whereas Shamet added 16 factors in 27 minutes.

The Hornets had an opportunity to win on the charity stripe with 2.5 seconds remaining, however Duane Washington Jr. missed all of his free throws after being fouled on a 3-point try. Washington, paradoxically, was among the many many gamers despatched away by the Knicks within the Cities commerce. He was given more money within the deal — basically signed to a assured contract solely as a result of the Knicks wanted to match salaries — and Sunday was a small payback.