Surging Knicks' resiliency allows them to thrive despite daunting schedule
Knicks forward Julius Randle looks at his bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game agains the Washington Wizards in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. Credit: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta
When the Knicks emptied the bench Saturday night in the closing minutes and put the finishing touches on their fourth straight win, they could look at the standings and find themselves in fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
It might not seem like much, landing them in the area where most projected them after last season’s fifth-place finish in the conference. But how they got here is worth noting.
The one-sided wins over Philadelphia and Washington on this trip came on back-to-back nights with a train ride connecting the games. It completed an arduous stretch of the schedule — one that dates nearly to opening night. In the Knicks' 36 games, they have compiled a 21-15 record despite eight sets of back-to-back games and 22 road games.
“Resilient,” Jalen Brunson said after Saturday night's 121-105 win over the Wizards. “There are a lot of things we can’t control. So we just focus on what we can control, taking it day by day and not worry about all that extra stuff that may not be in your favor. And we got to live with it, we got to move forward.”
“It’s been tough,” Julius Randle said after a 39-point effort Saturday night. “This has been, for me, my 10 years, this has been one of the more challenging first halves of a season when it comes to back-to-backs and traveling, definitely been one of the more challenging ones. But we’ve been resilient.”
The Knicks will be home for 13 of their next 17 games. They have the 20th-hardest remaining schedule (according to opponents' current records).
"When the schedule came out in the summer, you look at it and that’s sort of the nature of what you do when you get your schedule,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “There’s times when the schedule’s heavy, and sometimes it’s in your favor. Sometimes it’s not.
“And that’s why we pressed from the beginning on being ready for what we were going to face. And that’s why your conditioning is so important, your mental toughness is so important. I don’t care what it is that you have — you give the team whatever you have. So if you can play 10 minutes, you play 10 minutes. But you have to practice hard, you have to play hard, and build that habit. Either you’re building the habit to get through things or you’re building the habit to not get through things.”
The Knicks are 7-14 in the 21 games they have played against teams above .500 but have gone 14-1 against teams below .500. Thibodeau preaches an urgency to not play down to the level of those struggling teams, particularly on nights like Saturday, when the Knicks could have celebrated the 36-point win over in Philadelphia but instead came out and led wire-to-wire over the 6-29 Wizards.
“Don’t play with your food,” Randle said. “Take care of what you’re supposed to take care of and just keep improving. Basketball gods got a funny way of rewarding you or humbling you. We just try to approach each game the right way and play basketball the right way. Let the chips fall where they may.”
The Knicks have not lost a step after pulling off a franchise-shaking trade on Dec. 30 that brought OG Anunoby to the starting lineup and sent longtime pieces RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to Toronto. They are 4-0 since the trade, including wins over Minnesota and Philadelphia.
“The thing is, we’re playing team basketball on both ends,” said Isaiah Hartenstein, who had 19 rebounds in a team-high 39 minutes on Saturday. “I think that’s really kind of what’s kind of changed. OG’s been big for us defensively, cutting. I think we haven’t even scratched the surface of what we can get out of him offensively, so I think it’s really exciting that we can keep building off that, keep getting more chemistry in that part. Just the way it feels out there, it’s flowing better, playing better as a team on both ends of the court. That’s been big for us.''
Notes & quotes: The Knicks waived Taj Gibson on Sunday afternoon. Gibson, 38, who joined the team last month, would have had his $2.24 million contract guaranteed for the season if he was with the team beyond Jan. 10. The move creates roster flexibility, opening up a spot with the team, which is expected to be active through the Feb. 8 trade deadline. The Knicks did retain Ryan Arcidiacono, with Sunday serving as the guarantee date for his contract.
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.
