Under the Christmas spotlight at Madison Square Garden — with the Knicks in the midst of one of those comebacks to remind you this team might be on to something — a voice in the crowd said what everybody was thinking, though perhaps only fleetingly because it might’ve felt silly or premature to say out loud.
“Give the ball to Tyler.”
Keep in mind that Jalen Brunson, the King of Clutch, was dribbling and, logically, you wouldn’t want anybody else handling the rock with 2 1/2 minutes left and a four-point deficit.
But this fan’s intuition was correct. Kolek, who has never been constrained by nerves or wavering confidence, took and buried that 3-pointer. Then he recorded the biggest block of the Christmas 126-124 victory, a swipe on a driving and showboating Donovan Mitchell in the final two minutes of a thrilling comeback.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
