The Knicks saw their banner-raising night spoiled, as the defending champs couldn’t find that late-game magic they had so often last year just yet, falling to the 76ers in their season opener Tuesday night.
New York struggled on both ends and looked, as head coach Mike Brown described them as being “stuck in the mud” in an ugly night, but they did receive a positive from one of their newest and eldest members.
Veteran big manAndre Drummond was one of the Knicks’ biggest early contributors off the bench, shining in the first half before seemingly running out of steam down the stretch in the second.
The backup center ended up being called upon much earlier than anyone could've anticipated, but he did a tremendous job sliding in after Karl-Anthony Towns picked up a pair of early fouls.
Chants of ‘Andre Drummond’ quickly came raining down from the fired-up MSG crowd for the first time as he quickly made his presence felt down low on both ends of the floor.
Drummond needed just over 14 minutes to put together 10 points and 11 rebounds, which, according to the team, was the third-fastest double-double by a Knick since 1996-97. He also became the first and only player in franchise history to record a first-half double-double in the season-opener dating back to that same year.
The 33-year-old picked up just one more bucket following halftime, but he still finished with a dozen points and a game-high 14 boards across 24 minutes in his impressive Knicks debut.
Drummond also recorded a pair of blocks, a steal, and a team-high four assists.
“I thought that he played with a lot of bounce and energy,” Brown said. “We probably ran him a little too long there because it looked like in the second half, not just him but all five of our starters too, ran a little bit out of gas.
“I have to keep getting to know him to see where the minutes may lie for him to be effective for us, but I thought that he was really really, really good on both ends of the floor during the first half.”
Even if Brown has to cut his time down slightly on a nightly basis, receiving this type of production from Drummond would go a long way towards the Knicks bolstering their center depth after losing Mitchell Robinson this offseason.