Knicks storm back from 17 down to beat Heat
Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley screams after his team defeated the Heat in an NBA game Friday in Miami. Credit: AP/Jim Rassol
MIAMI — The Knicks had just finished off an improbable win, turning a 17-point fourth- quarter deficit into a 111-103 victory over the Eastern Conference-leading Miami Heat, fueled by a lineup made up of three rookies, one second-year player and one veteran.
But rather than offer praise for the youngsters, Tom Thibodeau took the opportunity to preempt any storylines from media or social media of who should play over who, attributing the win to the team no matter what the boxscore may say.
“Everyone has all the answers right after a game and oftentimes, they haven’t studied,” Thibodeau said. “So how do you really know? And I don’t want anything to divide our team. I want our team together. That’s how you win. You win as a team. You lose as a team. So when I see stuff being written or people talking about this, that. You hear it all the time, and then when you actually do study it and you watch the game again and maybe you watch it a third time, you actually know what transpired.”
The boxscore might not tell you exactly what this late rally looked like. Miles McBride scored only five points, but he had a huge three-pointer followed by a fast-break layup after stealing the ball from Kyle Lowry. Quentin Grimes had only nine points, but he hit a tying three-pointer with 6:19 remaining. Jericho Sims had six points and seven rebounds and also had a role in the fourth-quarter rally.
After falling behind 90-73 in the first minute of the quarter, the Knicks (32-42) responded with a 30-5 run to build a 103-95 lead with 1:39 left and outscored Miami 38-15 in the quarter.
Immanuel Quickley scored 20 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter. Jimmy Butler had 30 for the Heat (47-27).
The Knicks, perhaps as much as any team, have a huge media presence — from traditional media and on social media. And on a night like this, when Julius Randle sat out for a third straight game and the kids spurred a comeback, Thibodeau didn’t want to hear opinions about Randle or even the struggles of RJ Barrett and Evan Fournier.
“You guys are trying to nitpick this, nitpick that,” Thibodeau said. “You need everyone across the course of a season. We love our young guys. They bring it every day. They’re supposed to bring energy. You need RJ. You need Julius. You need Mitch. You need Evan. You need Alec. You need everyone. It’s a team, not an individual thing.”
He added, “It’s where we are in society today. Social media, it’s a different animal. Look, hey, it’s part of the game. We love it. It drives the game. It’s as popular as it’s ever been. But to me, I don’t like anything that eats away at the fabric of the team. And so, people want to take one game, whether it’s a win or a loss, and they went, ‘Well, this, this and this.’ No. And oftentimes, the things that they’re saying, a guy might make one good play in the game and he has nine bad plays or conversely, he makes nine good plays and he has one bad play.
“It’s a big part of the league,” Thibodeau said of social media. “You’ve got to be careful with it. It’s different, but we’re all the same. You have information coming at you constantly. Even if you stay off it, there’s going to be people telling you what they’re saying, so you’re going to hear it.
“So just block it out, don’t get distracted. Come in every day knowing that, hey, some days you may not play great but you can still help the team win. I just want the team to keep growing, keep improving, keep learning. We’ve got young guys, they’re going to learn. Trial and error is a big part of learning. Bring energy to the group, vets help the young guys grow and I want them to grow as well.”
Said Quickley, “Social media is always gonna be social media. The best players in our game, the best players that have ever played have been ridiculed on social media. Somebody’s always gonna have an opinion. That does not necessarily make it right or wrong, but you can’t get caught up in that stuff. The only thing you can do is work hard every day to get better. That’s something you can control. Social media is something you can’t control, so you just try to move on.”
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.
