Knicks trying to rediscover winning ways against Cavaliers
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau reacts in the second half of an NBA game against the Wizards at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
On another night the arrival of Donovan Mitchell to Madison Square Garden might have held some level of intrigue for the Knicks, a reminder of the star that got away. But for the Knicks, the focus is on themselves as they are in a downward spiral threatening to ruin all the good the team accomplished this season.
The Knicks carried a four-game losing streak into Tuesday night’s meeting with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the latest frustrating spin in the oddly streaky season the team has put together. And with the Cavaliers followed by a trip to Boston and then Brooklyn, the Knicks know that if they don’t get themselves back on track they could slip back below .500.
“The thing is that’s what you strive for is consistency,” coach Tom Thibodeau said before the game. “I think the way the league is right now, there’s a lot of variance because of the volume of the three-point shooting. So having urgency at the start of games, in terms of challenging shots, so guys don’t get going, and you try to slow them down after they get going, that’s the challenge for everyone.You’re looking at the scores in the league, every night you’re seeing people with 140, 150 points. You know you have to bring that intensity every night. There can’t be a letup.”
But there has been with the Knicks allowing more than 30 points in the first quarter of the last three games before Tuesday and also seeing fourth-quarter collapses in Atlanta and Toronto. The defense and rebounding that were carrying the team through a 21-game stretch in which the Knicks went 15-6, raising the record to 25-19 has disappeared since Mitchell Robinson went out with a fractured right thumb.
Over the last four games the Knicks have had an NBA-worst 130.3 defensive rating, the worst defensive rebounding percentage (59.6%) and are ahead of only the Lakers in second-chance points allowed (23.8).
“You always look at, OK, you have the first 20 games, then the second 20 and usually the third 20 is where it’s been a lot of time and you’re 50 games into the season and then you’re not quite there,” Thibodeau said. “If you let up just a little bit it’s going to show. So that’s where your consistency has to come in. I think that’s the challenge for all teams right now, to stay locked in and keep pushing, keep moving forward. And it doesn’t get easier. That’s the challenge. That’s the best part of the league, the challenge that you face each and every day.”
Thibodeau acknowledged that some of this can be put on the absence of Robinson, whose strengths are rim protection and rebounding. But he wasn’t ready to absolve the rest of the team or give in that the Knicks can’t get it done.
“I think sometimes we all tend to jump to conclusions immediately after a game,” he said. “[You’ll say] they shot 50% or they made 20 threes and then there’s not context to it. Sometimes, I know for me I like to go back and watch the film. That gives me context of exactly what happens. Sometimes you can challenge great and the guy makes it. Other times maybe you didn’t challenge a shot great and he missed it and it wasn’t the result of good defense.
“I [try] not to jump to conclusions after one game. I think that’s a mistake. OK, let’s look at these numbers over the course of three games, five games, 10 games. So then are you trending a certain way? … Where you are as a coach, you can’t obviously work on everything every day, what you try to lock into . . . let’s prioritize.”
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.
