Knicks won't change much in second straight game in Chicago
New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau appeals to referee CJ Washington during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, in Chicago. The Knicks won in overtime 128-120. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) Credit: AP/Charles Rex Arbogast
CHICAGO — It was a bit of déjà vu for the Knicks as they entered the United Center on Friday. The same handshakes and hugs from old friends awaiting Tom Thibodeau, Derrick Rose and Rick and Jalen Brunson, along with Rose holding court again to recount his days starring in this city and probably too many Chicago steakhouses to safely measure cholesterol for all involved.
The Knicks were back for their second straight game in Chicago, an odd but smart quirk in the NBA schedule-making as the league tries to cut down on travel. This is the only time the Knicks will play consecutive games in the same city against the same team, echoing a playoff-type situation in the dog days of the NBA season.
With a 128-120 overtime win over the Bulls on Wednesday, the Knicks had plenty of time to see their game plan in action, what was executed well and what needed work.
“I just think it’s one of the things when the league started it has more of that feel, it’s sort of a baseball feel, where you’re playing the same team,” Thibodeau said. “We had it before, but it was different — it was home-and-home. So you try to take advantage of it anyway. The idea is to make sure you’re ready to go. I think the fact that you just played them in a short amount of time, there will be more intensity to the game.”
Thibodeau seemed to indicate that there would be few new wrinkles introduced, instead relying on executing their plan better and doing it as close to 48 minutes as possible with the proper intensity. But with five straight wins entering Friday night’s rematch, the Knicks are believing that this is something they can accomplish.
“You have to understand how you get to that point,” Thibodeau said. “The important thing is you don’t skip over anything. It has to be day after day after day of doing the right things. That’s how you develop confidence and a belief in what you’re doing.
“It’s also how you get better at doing something. So to not shortcut that, not feel too good about, OK, we won the last game. That has nothing to do with this game. Be ready for this game. So you have to start all over in preparing yourself to play. Developing that mindset is huge. When you have the right type of guys that are real competitive and tough-minded, that’s how they approach it.”
A common Thibodeau message is that you either win or learn, and that losses carry value as long as you learn from them. But Jalen Brunson put a twist on that after Wednesday’s victory.
“We’ve got to keep piecing together wins together,” he said. “We can learn from wins as well. Try to keep building and got to keep learning. They’re going to come out ready to play on Friday. We’ve got to be ready for that.”
Thibodeau echoed that notion of learning from wins, too.
“And that’s the challenge because you’re fighting human nature,” he said. “In every game, there’s things you do well, things that you don’t do as well as you would like, and if you have one, it’s to make sure that same approach in terms of making your corrections to get better. And so I think the attitude and approach is critical.”
The other part of this, of course, is the Bulls also are plotting how to avenge that loss and doing it with a chip on their shoulder.
“Billy [Donovan] is a terrific coach,” Thibodeau said. “He’s done a great job throughout his career. I think that’s the challenge. Usually when you play a team a second time, the biggest adjustment is the intensity of the game. So we have to make sure we’re ready for that.”
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.
