• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. – The New York Knicks have experienced their fair share of growing pains this year. After losing 88-80 to the Sacramento Kings Sunday night, the Knicks now hold a 28-43 record on the year. The losing has been hard to handle, yet this Knick team has shown strides of improvement from last year.

Last season, New York had a franchise worst of only 17 wins. The season is not over, yet this Knick team has made an 11 game improvement. Robin Lopez has been an unlikely catalyst for the improvement, and his play has really made him a bright spot in another dark season in New York.

Lopez had arguably his best game in a Knick uniform, Sunday night against the Kings. The seven year veteran, tallied 23 points, 20 rebounds and two blocks in a losing effort. Lopez also put up these big numbers against DeMarcus Cousins, who himself has had a break-out season with the Kings. This makes Lopez’ performance Sunday night, that much more impressive.

Lopez on the season is averaging 10.1 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. The numbers haven’t been this high since the 2013-14 season, when Lopez played for the Portland Trail Blazers. In the last five games, Lopez has had three games of 16 or more points.

Lopez has a great energy on the court, and has been a great teammate that the other Knick players feed off. The passion Lopez plays with can be visibly seen, no matter what the score is. Even though the Knicks won’t make the playoffs this season, Lopez has shown that he is a solid piece moving towards the future.

Barry Holmes is a Senior Writer for PureSportsNY.com. Follow him on Twitter @BHO732

By Barry Holmes

Graduate of Millersville University, with a BS in Communications focused in Broadcast. Senior Writer & Social Media Manager for PureSportsNY.

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