The Washington Wizards beat the New York Knicks 111-109 at Madison Square Garden on October 8, taking an NBA preseason meeting by two after the teams traded quarters all night, according to the published box score. Washington led 30-29 after one, New York answered 34-27 in the second, Washington edged the third 24-21, and a 30-25 fourth carried the visitors home.
A two-point preseason game is the exhibition schedule at its most useful. Coaches get late-clock possessions with something resembling consequence, young guards get to run a final play against a set defence, and both staffs leave with film of executions and failures that a blowout never produces. The result itself will be forgotten by both teams before the weekend.
New York's second-quarter surge and Washington's steadier second half describe the game's shape without overstating it: runs in October usually track which rotation is on the floor rather than which team is better. The Knicks will weigh their closing group's defence; the Wizards will weigh their starters' slow first and third quarters against the reserves' finish.
Home preseason crowds at the Garden treat these games as a first sighting rather than a verdict, and that is the correct proportion. The questions that matter — rotation order, backup ball-handling, late-game spacing — were all genuinely examined in a game that stayed close enough to require answers.
Express News Bulletin reports the score and quarter lines from the published box score. Preseason outcomes do not predict regular-season meetings, and both teams' rotations in this game were, by design, not the rotations either will use when the games count.
Washington's visit also gave its staff a late-game possession to evaluate with the shot clock and the crowd both live, the closest preseason approximation of a February finish. Executing a final set on the road, even in October, is data a young team banks. New York, meanwhile, got its starters a competitive first half and its reserves a genuine test, which is a full return on an exhibition night regardless of the two-point margin.
