The New York Knicks played close to a perfect game Friday night, just in time to prepare for the team keeping them from a perfect start at home.
The Knicks will look to avenge their only home loss of the season on Sunday afternoon when they host the Orlando Magic.
Both teams were off Saturday after earning wins at home Friday night.
The Knicks rode a historic game-opening run to a 146-112 rout of the Utah Jazz.
The Magic, in turn, welcomed back Paolo Banchero, who helped Orlando stave off a furious fourth-quarter rally by the Miami Heat to earn a 106-105 victory.
The Knicks are 12-1 at home, the best start for the team since the 1992-93 edition opened 13-1. Only the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder (11-0) are better on their home court this season.
The Knicks have trailed for just 23 seconds in their last three home wins and led wire-to-wire in the last two victories. New York beat the Charlotte Hornets, 119-104, on Wednesday night.
But while the Hornets kept things interesting by pulling within eight points in the fourth quarter, the Knicks dominated the Jazz from the opening tip Friday. New York raced out to a 23-0 lead, its biggest spurt to start a game since the NBA began tracking play-by-play data in 1996-97.
The Knicks led by at least 19 points the rest of the way on their way to collecting their most points in a game decided in regulation since Nov. 11, 1980, when New York beat the Detroit Pistons 149-118.
“I thought all of our offensive staples were good, while we tried to do what we needed to defensively,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said. “Collectively, that’s a good win for us.”
The Knicks have won five straight home games since their lone loss at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 12, when the Magic recorded a 124-107 win.
That game also may have served as a pivotal moment in the season for Orlando, which cruised to victory despite losing Banchero to a strained left groin early in the second quarter.
Banchero missed the next 10 games, during which the Magic went 7-3 with wins over the Detroit Pistons and the Knicks, who entered Saturday as the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. Orlando averaged 122.3 points per game without Banchero after going 6-6 while averaging 116.6 points per game over their first 12 contests.
“We established how we want to play as a unit,” Magic forward Franz Wagner said after scoring a game-high 32 points Friday night. “I think if everyone is committed to that, the ball will find who it should find. Obviously, it is going to be Paolo a lot of the time, too.”
Banchero started Friday, when he had nine points and six rebounds in a little more than 20 minutes.
“As soon as Paolo gets a couple of games under his belt, we’ll look great as a team,” Wagner said.
–Field Level Media
