The Hornets had to dig themselves out of a hole Saturday night against the Knicks, but in using the three-ball to do so, they were able to escape Madison Square Garden with a big victory.
It was impressive to see how many three-point shots the Hornets attempted in this game, let alone how many they hit. Once it was all said and done, the Hornets finished 17-of-48 from three-point range.
No three was more important than the final one, a Devonte Graham dagger with 2.1 seconds left to play. The go-ahead shot was Graham's ninth three-pointer of the game.
The Knicks had their shots at holding on to things after blowing a double-digit lead in the third quarter. In fact, they were up 102-98 with 48.2 seconds left to play.
But two made free throws by P.J. Washington, a missed floater from Julius Randle, Graham's shot and another missed jumper from Randle ended the Knicks' chances at starting a winning streak.
"We just...we didn't take the game," Randle said after the loss. "We just let them stay around, you know, instead of just really taking the game, and we didn't."
Frank Ntilikina played a solid game for the Knicks, especially on the defensive side of the ball -- he finished the game with three steals. Ntilikina defended Graham on his final shot and feels like it was on him.
"If he scored, I think I can do a better job," Ntilikina said. "He did a good job of having me turn around. I saw the big guy having the ball so I thought he was going to the hand-off. I still got there and it was a contested shot, but he was hot and he hit it, so good job to them."
"Myself and our team, we've got to learn about ourselves first because it's a big shot and we've got to learn how to stop that," He said.
RJ Barrett led the Knicks in scoring with 22 points and continued to grow, putting up eight straight points late in the fourth quarter when the team needed a spark. Unfortunately for the team, it wasn't enough.
"When they started hitting threes...and then they started getting twos, so it was tough overall," Barrett said. "We were trading baskets and we've got to get stops."
"To their credit, they battled back. I thought we had a really good game and that's definitely one that you want to have back, but credit to them," Barrett said.