NEW ORLEANS — It was Mohamed Diawara’s turn to have a big night.
The Knicks rookie started at forward during Monday’s win over the Pelicans, serving as the replacement for injured Josh Hart. And Diawara arrived at Smoothie King Center on fire, dropping 13 points in the first quarter — including 3-for-3 from beyond the arc — and finished with a career-high 18 points.
It was an eye-opening stretch from a player whose previous career high was five points, with coach Mike Brown explaining why he’s bullish on Diawara’s potential.
“In the summertime you started to see his feel. Just his feel for the game is uncanny for a guy who is 6-[foot]-8 or 6-9 and for how young he is,” Brown said of the 20-year-old second-round pick. “And then everything you try to talk about or teach him, he tries to observe and go do it. He works extremely hard. He’s long. He’s a pretty good defender. Getting better.
“Just a lot of little things that you kind of watch and go, ‘Oh my gosh, wow.’ And all those things when you add them up to a possible opportunity it gives you more confidence as a coaching staff to throw him out there and say, okay let’s see what’s going to happen.”
Diawara joined youngsters Tyler Kolek and Kevin McCullar Jr. with his revelatory performance.
Mitchell Robinson sat Monday for load management. He’s missed 10 of 32 games this season for that reason.
“It’s all load management,” Brown said. “If you look at our schedule [it’s been hectic], I was complaining about it maybe a little too much. We’re just trying to be smart with it.”
Robinson’s replacement Monday in the rotation, Ariel Hukporti, didn’t play in the second half because of a mouth laceration. It thrust Trey Jemison (four minutes) into action.
Brown went deeper than usual into his bench Monday, playing 12 guys in the first half, including the reinsertion of Guerschon Yabusele (nine points, two rebounds, 16 minutes) into the rotation. It continued Brown’s trend of spreading the opportunities, which was applauded Monday by Mikal Bridges as a tactic to boost morale and engagement from the bench.
“Yeah, for sure. Knowing that the work you put it, you might get your name called,” Bridges said. “And also like it builds more as a team. And the thing is, we love each other and are competitive at the same time. But you know you want to be out there sometimes.
“The energy, the cheering on, there’s going to be thoughts of, ‘Damn, wish I was out there.’ Which, you know, could hold back your energy. Just a little bit. I’m not saying it’s going to be drastic. But knowing that you’re playing, now it gives even more energy because you feel like you contribute to whatever, knowing you might get called. So it’s just a different energy for the bench. Especially if we make runs. If we got nine guys that play, 10 guys that play, everybody is so juiced up because they played three minutes, they played four minutes.”
Jalen Brunson was third in the Eastern Conference in the first returns of the fan voting.
The point guard was only behind Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey.
Karl-Anthony Towns (7th), OG Anunoby (13th), Bridges (15th) and Hart (16th) also cracked the top 20.
Fan voting, which accounts for 50 percent of the voting for the starters, continues until Jan. 14. Current NBA players and a media panel account for 25 percent each.
This year, the starters are voted in without regard to position — just five players from each conference who will then be divided into two All-Star teams of American players, and one team with international players.
Last year, Brunson was sixth in overall votes for Eastern Conference players behind LaMelo Ball, Donovan Mitchell, Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum and Towns.
