Tom Thibodeau and Knicks developing strong bond as team
Head coach Tom Thibodeau of the Knicks reacts during the third quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Jan 17, 2025. Credit: Jim McIsaac
When the game was over Saturday night, Sacramento coach Doug Christie was trying to explain where things had gone wrong for his Kings against the Knicks. He went through the holes in their defense, where the gaps had been created and how it had been shredded.
But maybe there was a simpler explanation.
“I think it’s always a good combination when you have a coach and player who match each other’s craziness,” Josh Hart said about Tom Thibodeau.
And maybe that is an explanation for the Knicks’ three-game winning streak, the 30-16 record that has them breathing down the necks of the second-place Boston Celtics and a night like Saturday’s 143-120 victory, when everything suddenly seemed to come together.
Hart went from questionable before the game to a 40-minute triple-double. Only the one-sided score got him an early exit, ending his night with 20 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists. It was just shy of a 20-20 triple-double, which would have been a career high for rebounds.
But it was more than one person as the starting lineup clicked smoothly. The Knicks got 33 points from OG Anunoby, 27 from Mikal Bridges and 25 with 11 assists from Jalen Brunson. Karl-Anthony Towns added 18 points and 15 rebounds in only 28 minutes.
As a team, they posted 40 assists, their second-highest total of the season, on 52 baskets. It was the first time since 1985 that they had two players with at least 11 assists in a game.
“Yeah, just trust the game,” Thibodeau said. “I thought we had good minutes of playing fast and beating the zone down the floor. We got into the gaps. They were double-teaming and we got to the second pass. Just read the game. The game tells you what to do. But for us, we get stops and we get into the open floor, it’s a big advantage for us.”
There have been plenty of up- and-down performances along the way this season. There were moments when the questions about the deals for Bridges and Towns were raised and boldfaced, wondering if this would work. But at its best, on nights like Saturday, the answers all seem to be clarified.
And at the center of that is this: The players assembled by the front office are willing to be as crazy as the coach, or at least play along with the craziness. And that craziness seems to mean a willingness to ignore the outside noise, play the minutes required and the defense needed, and be unselfish on offense.
Towns has never griped on nights when he’s taken a back seat to Brunson, happily recounting afterward how “Cap” did what he does. Anunoby said on the Knicks’ postgame show Saturday, “There was a spell when I wasn’t getting touches and I wasn’t getting shots. Just trying to be more aggressive, trying to insert myself into the game. We have a great team, so it’s hard to figure it out, but it’s getting better and better.”
Bridges has moved from the No. 1 option in Brooklyn to an effective complementary piece for the Knicks.
“It’s about making the right play every single time, or at least trying to,” Brunson said. “And if we don’t, we hold each other accountable and we go forward from there. But we all want to win, and that’s the only thing that matters.”
Brunson and Towns were voted in as All-Star Game starters last week, and both spent the news conference the next morning detailing how their teammates make it possible. That may be true, but the star power with players willing to fit in is what makes it work.
“I think it’s huge. I think they’re all part of that success,” Thibodeau said. “I think they share in that with each other. I think you can only win as a team, and when the team does well, people get recognized.
“And I think from the start of the season to where we are now, there’s been tremendous improvement. I think also the willingness of all our players to sacrifice for each other. Good things come from that. And I think you’re seeing that.”
Some might think it’s crazy. Or maybe at Madison Square Garden, it’s just the right amount of crazy between the coach and the players.
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.
