Former Villanova Wildcat Donte DiVincenzo is clawing his way into New York Knicks history.
DiVincenzo earned a metropolitan statistical landmark in the Knicks' 98-74 win over the Orlando Magic on Friday night: with the last of three triples (on 10 tries), DiVincenzo became just the fourth man in franchise history to successfully sink at least 200 three-pointers in a single campaign.
Defense may have ruled the day but DiVincenzo's historic nugget continues a sterling maiden voyage with the Knicks. DiVincenzo was the headlining addition of the offseason and is on pace for career-bests in scoring (14.3 per game) and three-point percentage (40.6).
With 19 games left on the regular season docket and sinking over three a game, DiVincenzo is well on pace to pass Evan Fournier's output of 241 from the 2021-22 season to set the new franchise single-season mark. Injured teammate Julius Randle is the current runner-up (218 last season) just ahead of John Starks (217 in 1994-95). The DiVincenzo 200 is also good for the third-most conversions in the NBA with an extra point on the line, behind only Luka Doncic and former teammate/all-time three-point king Stephen Curry.
Even if DiVincenzo somehow misses out on Fournier's record by the end of this season, he'll have plenty of opportunities to dethrone the current Detroit Piston ahead of him: strong collaboration with Curry in Golden State led to the Knicks offering him a four-year, $46 million contract, which looks like a bargain considering the undeniable impact he's left on the Knicks instant and cumulative ledgers.
DiVincenzo began this season on the bench but commandeered the team's primary shooting guard role from the departed Quentin Grimes by mid-December. Since his promotion, DiVincenzo has averaged 16.9 points on just under 46 percent from the field next to 3.7 rebounds and 1.4 steals.
"He came into the season shooting really well. He got off to a great start and I thought that was a byproduct of the work he put in during the summer. He hit the ground running and hasn’t stopped," Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said in February, per Steve Popper of Newsday. "He’s really grown during this stretch, this is probably his best stretch of basketball and he’s doing it on both sides of the ball.”
DiVincenzo's next chance to eat into Fournier's record lands on Sunday night when the Knicks host the Philadelphia 76ers (7 p.m. ET, MSG/ESPN).
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