Knicks still believe they'll get it right despite NBA Cup loss to Hawks
Karl-Anthony Towns of the Knicks drives to the hoop in the first half against the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
It begins in training camp for Tom Thibodeau. The mantra he preaches is that the goal for the Knicks is to get better every day, to be their best at the end of the season. But that doesn’t make it any easier to wait out nights like Wednesday, when for 24 minutes in the second half, the end was hard to imagine.
The Knicks’ run in the NBA Cup came to a crashing end as they seemed to forget every other tenet that the coach has put in place — relying on a consistent dose of defense, solid rebounding and the limiting of turnovers as a fallback for nights when the shot isn’t falling. As the visions of a trip to Vegas dissipated, the Knicks looked slow and short and hardly like the contending team they believe they are.
And when it was over, they insisted that they still believe.
“I mean, obviously you just want to be the best you can be,” Karl-Anthony Towns said after the Hawks turned a 10-point third-quarter deficit into an 11-point third-quarter lead in a 108-100 win. “Miami Heat years ago with LeBron [James] had a whole year it took before they figured out how to put a banner up. And then other teams it took — the Lakers with LeBron, it took them half, 75% of the season.
“You don’t know. I can’t tell you. I don’t have a crystal ball in front of me to tell you how long before things are fully clicking at a consistent level. But I think that for us, for the fans, for the film, we show spurts of consistency and I think we show what we could be when things are clicking at a high level and everything’s going smooth. I can’t tell you exact time, but I can tell you that every day we’re working to be the best version of ourselves and how can we consistently show that to the fans and to the city. I think the fans and all y’all see what we’re trying to do.”
It’s understandable and not unexpected that it would take time for the team to find its footing after a massive offseason shakeup, trading a haul of draft picks for Mikal Bridges and dealing Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo for Towns. That put two new huge pieces in the starting lineup.
And the Knicks have had a habit of starting slowly. Their 15-10 record is actually the best the franchise has had through 25 games in five seasons under Thibodeau. Last season was the first time they were above .500 at this point.
In three of those first four seasons, they made the playoffs, so nights like Wednesday hardly are an indicator that they can’t do what Thibodeau hopes — be their best at the end of the season.
“I don’t know how long,” OG Anunoby said of when a team can be expected to find its way. “But I don’t think it matters how long. As long as you find it, it doesn’t matter when you find it.”
That may seem reassuring in the long run, but it hardly puts the team and its fan base at ease now.
“We’ve got great guys in here,” Towns said. “Great coaching staff. We’ve got guys who are willing to put the work in and make the sacrifice. I think a lot of them, especially the Villanova guys, have a career that shows that. So every day, just continue to . . . stay focused even on days like this, when things don’t go well and these losses hurt.”
That sounds good. It actually sounds like Thibodeau. But there are too many nights like Wednesday when the defense isn’t clinging to the opponent, when rebounds are piling up for the other team and when the playmaking is sloppy and the shots aren’t falling and the shoulders slump — looking as if maybe they don’t believe.
But they insist they do. Thibodeau isn’t asking for perfection 25 games in. And history shows that his teams find their way. It’s just that nights like Wednesday, it’s hard to see it.
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.
