Tom Thibodeau has prepared Knicks all season for grueling playoffs
As the Knicks readied for a chance to eliminate the Philadelphia 76ers Tuesday night and move on to the next round they, like most Knicks fans, tuned into other games. They saw stars dropping with injuries and teams struggling to get through the grueling battle that is the NBA postseason.
“I watch other games all the time. I guess right now like a fan because obviously we’re focused on Philly," Jalen Brunson said as the Knicks prepared for Game 5 with a 3-1 lead in the series. "But also you want to see what’s going on around the league, how people are playing, the intensity and what it takes. So you can always learn from watching other games. Whether it pertains to you or not, you can always see what’s going on.
“It’s always a battle. Like I said, you never really know what’s going to happen. You always prepare as much as you want, but things happen out of your control. It’s how you respond to the situations.”
There are other teams that may be more talented than the Knicks, but there may be no team more prepared for these moments, for these situations, for these battles. How they respond to these challenges is by doing exactly what they do throughout the season.
The Knicks absorbed plenty of questions and criticism through the regular season for the method that coach Tom Thibodeau pushes, playing to the final buzzer every night and never giving a game — a minute even — away. Everything matters, and that means what you do in what some believe are meaningless midseason games matters and leads them to these moments. Training that way all season long readies them for these biggest moments.
“It’s always funny because you see especially now during the playoffs, everybody is playing 40 minutes,” said Josh Hart, who is leading all players in the playoffs with 44.7 minutes per game. “Some people can’t do it. Some people go from 34 to 41 and they don’t’ have the energy. It’s something we’ve had to deal with throughout the whole season. Even more this year because we’ve had so many injuries.
“It’s something that’s tough. I think we’re used to it. Praying before every game for energy and strength and I go out there and I just do what I’m supposed to do.”
“Thibs, obviously, played a really big role, because he has to prepare us every day,” Brunson said. “Obviously with injuries and stuff like that, you really don’t know who’s in or out sometimes throughout the year, and so it’s just been on him to prepare us for every situation, and he’s done that. So a lot of the credit goes to him.”
While Thibodeau has preached it, the players have lived it. So while some of the players in the Knicks' path if they can get past Philadelphia — Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Kristaps Porzingis — have suffered muscle strains or tears, the Knicks had three players on the floor for at least 43 minutes in Sunday’s Game 4 win in Philadelphia. And in the final moments while Joel Embiid appeared gassed, they were still scrambling all over the floor.
“It’s a reflection of preparing yourself for the season and maintaining during the season,” Brunson said. “I think everyone on the outside talks about our workload and what we’re doing and how we’re not going to make it and stuff like that. I guess scientifically sometimes some of that can be true. But I think from a mental standpoint, if we understand where our bodies are at, if we understand what it takes, it’s going to put us in position to be successful in the long run. So I think it’s all about our mental approach, how we attack situations and not really thinking if we’re tired or not.”
That has allowed the Knicks do what they do in this series. They have been grabbing loose balls, outrebounding the bigger 76ers lineups and keeping this up to the buzzer. Some of it is the training and the coaching, some is just natural.
“For me? It’s natural,” said Hart, who admitted his pregame nutrition consists of heavy doses of caffeine and more Mike and Ike’s candy than any grown-up should consume. "I don’t care about conditioning. I wish I could tell you in the summer I run five miles a day at a six-minute pace. But I don’t. I just, luckily, I never let myself get too out of shape. When you run like a bat out of hell for [82] games for 40 minutes you are in pretty good condition."
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.
