Saturday in Miami was supposed to be a glorified scrimmage, and the end of the bench turned it into appointment television. Chris Finch sat his top six, handed the keys to the camp hopefuls and the partial-guarantee guys, and watched them drag a 125-124 win out of Kaseya Center. Bones Hyland poured in 23 on five threes, Zyon Pullin added 22, Joan Beringer blocked four shots, and Antonio Reeves won it with a basket with 2.3 seconds left. Nobody will cite that game in April. Everybody in that locker room playing for a roster spot will remember it.
Now the Wolves go to Madison Square Garden, and the host is a familiar face. Karl-Anthony Towns is a Knick, which still feels strange to type, and the last time these two teams met for real, he dropped 40 on Minnesota in a game the Wolves won anyway, 115-104, behind 38 from Anthony Edwards. That was December. This is October, and nobody on either bench is treating it like a regular season game.
Finch hasn’t said who plays Monday. He rested Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Jaden McDaniels, Jonathan Kuminga, Rudy Gobert and Ayo Dosunmu in Miami, and with two more exhibitions after this one (Detroit at Target Center on Wednesday, then Chicago on Friday) he has room to keep spacing out his starters’ minutes. Either way, the bench guys are going to get a long look again.
The Knicks are still looking for their first preseason win. They lost 120-97 in Philadelphia to open things, and coach Mike Brown didn’t hide his feelings: “What bothers me is our lack of physicality throughout the ballgame.” Then they lost to Washington at home. Brown has split his camp invites between games, and the group he slotted for Minnesota includes Ochai Agbaji, Drew Eubanks, Tony Bradley and Kevin McCullar Jr., so expect the Knicks’ bubble to be fighting for its life too. So here are the keys.
1. Somebody take the backup point guard job. With DiVincenzo sidelined, the minutes behind Edwards, Ball, and Dosunmu are wide open, and Miami turned it into a two-man race. Hyland was the best player on the floor; Pullin was the one answering every Heat run down the stretch. One more night of that and Finch has a real decision to make. The buckets are nice. What wins the job is running the offense, taking care of the ball and getting the second unit into its sets. Whoever does that in the Garden makes a strong case.
2. Beringer, hold the paint against real size. If Gobert sits again, the rim belongs to Joan Beringer. He was terrific in Miami: four blocks, a plus-16 in 24 minutes, and the look of a 19-year-old who might be ready to be the insurance behind a 34-year-old. New York’s frontcourt is a bigger test. If Towns plays, Beringer gets a big who can step out and shoot, which is a very different job than walling off drives. Don’t chase him out to the 3-point line and leave the lane open behind you.
3. Terrence Shannon Jr., this is the audition. Shannon started Saturday, and he’s the bench name whose minutes say the most about Oct. 21. Somebody has to absorb wing minutes while DiVincenzo rehabs, and Shannon’s size lets Finch slide him into the frontcourt, where Minnesota is thin. He wasn’t polished around the rim in the first two games. A national TV window and a Knicks wing or two worth guarding is the right stage to show he can be trusted in a real rotation.
It doesn’t count. Nobody will remember the score. But the last roster spots absolutely count, and the guys scrapping for them get the Garden floor and a national audience Monday night. If you want to watch, our how-to-watch guide has every option, and the injury report will tell you who’s actually dressed by tip.
Run the kids.
Make Towns work for it.
See you in Miami on the 21st.
