Winning or losing now to Celtics not an accurate measuring stick for Knicks
Jalen Brunson of the Knicks works against Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics during the first half at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The last time they met on opening night at TD Garden, the Knicks retreated to their locker room as the Boston Celtics went through the festivities of the ring ceremony to celebrate the NBA Championship they’d won months earlier. And if the Knicks knew what awaited them, maybe they wouldn’t have come out of the locker room.
Perhaps the best thing to come from the opening night blowout was that the Knicks have recovered their footing, shrugged off the debacle and continued on what they insist is a path to be at their best at the end of the season. So by that theory, they would be at their worst on opening night and that was certainly the case.
You can point to the 132-109 final score, the 43-24 first quarter deficit that led to the minutes police monitoring the excess minutes for bench players. Or you can look at the NBA record-tying 29 three-point field goals that the Celtics rained down on the Knicks or simply Boston coach Joe Mazzulla describing what the parquet floor at the Garden tasted like after he’d kissed it during the pregame festivities and he said, “Blood.”
It felt like a blood-letting that night and threatened to derail the Knicks hopes for the rebuilt squad before it even got started. Now, whatever the result would be Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks had already shown that the game could be thrown away as Josh Hart joked afterward, “[The] NBA needs to drug test all of them. I’ll tell you that right now. Because I ain’t never seen nothing like that before.
The Knicks carried a 34-17 record into Saturday’s rematch. They are 1 1/2 games behind the second-place Celtics in the Eastern Conference race and this game still might not be the measuring stick that some hoped opening night would be. The Celtics were without Jrue Holiday and the Knicks didn’t have OG Anunoby.
“Yeah, it’s the next test,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It’s about understanding how you prepare for each game what are the strengths and weaknesses of the team. We have to know them well. Obviously, they’re a dangerous team. They are the defending champion. So we have to be ready to play 48 minutes of really good basketball.
“I think the challenge is when you have as many guys as we did to get them to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each other, learning a new system and to focus on that improvement. I’d say offensively it’s been steady throughout. And defensively the same thing. To understand what goes into winning — defense, your rebounding, keeping your turnovers down, attacking the rim and sharing the ball. I’d say we’ve been pretty good at these things.”
Thibodeau said that he didn’t dispose of that game film from the opening night as he prepared for this one. He's just using it as one of many learning tools to prepare, nothing different than any other game.
“You don’t want to change how you prepare for people,” Thibodeau said. “Your normal protocol would be to watch previous games against the opponent. Then watch two or three of their previous games. Then you look at what you’re doing now, what they are doing now. Who’s in for them, who’s out for them. Who’s in for us, who’s out for us.
“It’s another steppingstone for us to see where we are,” Brunson said. “Each game is a test for us to see where we can improve and can better and what are we going to do going forward. When a team wins the way they did everyone’s chasing them, so there’s a lot of respect for Boston around the league.”
For Brunson and the Knicks though, one thing was certain. The result, win or lose, would not determine the 30 games to follow.
Notes & quotes: Anunoby was sidelined for a third straight game with a right foot sprain. Thibodeau said that Anunoby did do some on-court work at the morning shootaround, “So he’s close, but those are day to day decisions.” . . . Former Knicks coach Hubie Brown will serve as analyst for the final time for ABC Sunday afternoon. Thibodeau said of Brown, “Great coach, teacher. Great analyst on TV. Every time you listen to him, you feel like you learn something. Just a great human being, incredible career, he’s been a great ambassador for the game. He’s a special person and I’m thrilled for him.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
