Miles McBride has made eight of his last 16 attempts from 3-point range. He’s got 26 total points over his last two games and is shooting almost 48% from deep through the first four games of the Knicks’ first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks. Plus, he’s playing hard-nosed point-of-attack defense, whether it’s guarding C.J. McCollum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker or any of the Hawks’ other perimeter scoring threats.
Now, here’s the kicker: McBride is doing it all in pain, nearly a month removed from his first game back following core muscle surgery to repair a sports hernia.
“I had surgery, yeah,” McBride said, when asked if he’s still experiencing lingering discomfort from the late January procedure. “It’s something — everybody is banged up at this time of the year. So just gotta go out there and perform.”
Through four first-round playoff games, McBride has posted a plus-21.2 net rating, meaning the Knicks have outscored the Hawks by an average of more than 21 points for every 100 possessions “Deuce” is on the floor this series. Only one Knick has a higher net rating — Jose Alvarado, who hasn’t logged nearly as many minutes as McBride during this playoff stretch.
Alvarado, however, doesn’t have what McBride has described as a “stabbing feeling” all throughout his core, oblique and pelvic region: The Knicks’ backup guard and sixth man missed two months of action recovering from surgery following a Jan. 27 matchup with the Sacramento Kings.
“I’ve dealt with injuries before, but this one was different,” McBride said after practice at the team’s Tarrytown training facility on Monday. “Just it being your core, your groins, your hips, everything you do in life is through your center of gravity.
“But I lean on God, I lean on the people around me, and our medical staff’s done a great job.”
After an early rough go, he’s finally finding his stride: McBride made just six of his first 27 attempts from the field upon his return from sports hernia surgery. He then shot 8-of-15 from the field in the season finale against the Charlotte Hornets, and after shooting two-of-nine from the field through the first two games of the first-round series, McBride is finding the bottom of the net.
He’s helping Jalen Brunson create some space on the ball, too.
Much like former head coach Tom Thibodeau, Mike Brown prefers to use McBride off the ball as a spot-up shooter — but also as a guard-to-guard screen setter.
“[I like to] try to make [Jalen’s] job as easy as possible, as well the rest of the teammates out there,” McBride said after practice on Monday. “Any time I’m on the floor, I try to make everybody’s lives easier, whether that’s on the defensive or offensive end. Just bringing whatever I have, whatever my talents are, whatever I see in the game, and do it.”
The Knicks outscored the Hawks by 13 points in the 23 minutes McBride played in their Game 4 win in Atlanta on Saturday. The Knicks have a plus-29.5 net rating in the 63 minutes both McBride and Brunson shared on the court this series, and they’ll need more out of their backup guard as they progress through the playoffs.
McBride is ready — and his teammates know it.
“He’s been playing great. To be able to use him in certain actions and play off-ball, and obviously his shooting capability, the way he plays defense and everything,” said Brunson, “He does a lot for our team. So, I think regardless of who’s on the floor, he’s gonna do a lot of great things.”