As Jeff Van Gundy watched Willy Hernangomez can a midrange jumper with roughly 40 seconds remaining in Wednesday’s victory over Brooklyn, the ESPN commentator could no longer contain himself. “I love Hernan-gomez,” squealed the last great Knicks coach, with all the cadence and fervor of Mike Myers saying “I loved ‘Prince of Tides’” on the old SNL Coffee Talk sketches.
It was the culmination of a strong 14-point, 6-rebound, 2-block effort for the young Spaniard, who had not played in New York’s previous three games. Brandon Jennings, Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Sasha Vujacic (???) all contributed to the Knicks’ second-half bench bench surge — by far the best performance by the second unit this season — but Hernangomez was the anchor.