Kemba Walker is back. And he is burning.
But he cannot fix what is sickly the big apple Knicks.
The recently benched All-Star was back within the Knicks’ lineup for a 3rd straight game weekday once he scored a team season-high forty four points ahead of a fired-up Madison sq. Garden crowd. It wasn’t enough to beat a Washington Wizards team that secured a 124-117 win with Bradley Beal sidelined in COVID-19 protocols. The Wizards improved to 17-15 whereas the Knicks born to 14-18 amid a 3-9 slide.
Walker is lighting up board since come back from benching
Head coach Tom Thibodeau benched Walker on November. 29, telling reporters “it’s what’s best for the team” as he moved Alec Burks into the beginning lineup. Walker was then a healthy DNP for 9 straight games that saw the Knicks go 2-7 in his absence. COVID-19 sidelined as several as six Knicks in recent games, prompting Thibodeau to come back the four-time All-Star to the lineup against the Beantown Celtics on Sabbatum. He has scored twenty nine, twenty one and currently forty four points in consecutive games, however the Knicks area unit 1-2 since his come back.
NEW YORK, the big apple – Dec twenty one: Kemba Walker #8 of the the big apple Knicks in action against the Motor City Pistons at Madison sq. Garden on Dec 21, 2021 in the big apple town. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or victimisation this photograph, User is willing to the terms and conditions of the Getty pictures License Agreement. the big apple Knicks defeated the Motor City Pistons 105-91. (Photo by microphone Stobe/Getty Images)
Kemba Walker (Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
Kemba had seasoner rocking weekday
The Knicks looked able to stop their slide on weekday as Walker torched the Wizards for twenty eight first-half points. Before he capped the [*fr1] with Associate in Nursing gymnastic floater to secure a 63-57 break lead, Knicks fans serenaded him with a “Kemba Walker!” chant.
After a slow begin to the last half, he finished the third quarter robust with thirteen additional points motor-assisted by the primary four-point play of the Knicks season.
Defense, again, bites Knicks
The Wizards often matched his shots with huge buckets of their own. Seven Wizards scored in double figures in an exceedingly balanced effort with their All-Star guard sidelined. Herbert Spencer Dinwiddie diode the approach with twenty one points and twelve assists. The Wizards shot fifty six from the sector and connected on sixteen of thirty seven (43.2%) 3-point tries.
Walker finished with forty four points, 9 rebounds and eight assists whereas connecting on seven of fourteen 3-point tries. however no quantity of offensive heroics from Walker goes to repair a defense that has struggled all season to match the efforts of last season’s competition team that finished third within the NBA team defensive rating. when Thursday’s loss, these Knicks rank twenty third within the same class.
