Knicks face an early test to open new season
Knicks forward Julius Randle looks on against the Wizards during the first half of an NBA preseason game at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 18. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
GREENBURGH — Expectations are understandably high around Madison Square Garden with the Knicks building on a solid foundation, hoping to jump into the next level of contenders as the NBA season begins. And to start it off, the measuring stick awaiting them Wednesday night was the team regarded as one of the best in the league, the Boston Celtics.
Two years ago, coming off a fourth-place finish in the Eastern Conference, the Knicks opened up with a double-overtime win over the Celtics at Madison Square Garden. But after starting the season 5-1, the Knicks finished 37-45 and in 11th place in the East, out of the playoff picture.
Still, with a contest against the team that might be the best in the NBA to start and a three-game road trip to follow, with two-back-to-back sets and a return to the road in Milwaukee against the Bucks, the Knicks may learn something about themselves very quickly.
“Yeah, I mean, take this game out of it,” Donte DiVincenzo said after the morning shootaround Wednesday. “If you look at our first week, two weeks, we have two back-to-backs and we have a lot of good opponents. So I think the first couple of weeks of the season are a good test as a whole. We play a lot of good teams, have a really tough schedule early on with travel and everything like that. I think it’s going to be a really, really good test of our mental strength and how together we are as a team early on. And it’ll give us a good measuring stick of what we have to work on going forward."
The spoils of these expectations this season are evident. Julius Randle spent part of the lead-up on "The Tonight Show," touting a new sneaker deal with Skechers, and he was featured in an NBA promotional short film for the in-season tournament — probably a good idea since the Knicks already approached the regular season with more importance placed on every day than most teams.
“We know how talented [the Celtics] are, but I think it’ll show you exactly where we are and what we have to work on and everything else,” Tom Thibodeau said after Tuesday’s practice. “And it’s a long season and I want our focus to be on what we have to do each and every day. Don’t skip ahead.
“If we win, I don’t want us too excited about winning. If we lose, I just want us to focus on that daily improvement and what we have to do to be a successful team. There are no shortcuts to this. This is us putting the work in each and every day. Even if you have success, as soon as you start feeling too good about yourself, you’re gonna get knocked down. So, there has to be a businesslike approach to each and every day and that’s what we’re locking into.”
Still, the last time the Knicks ventured onto the Garden floor they put nearly their entire rotation into the lineup and came up with an embarrassing — if meaningless in the big picture — loss in the final preseason game against the rebuilding Washington Wizards.
But that game gave the Knicks and Thibodeau something to point to, a measuring stick of how far they have to go. With a week of practice time since that game the Knicks believe they’re ready for the real test to begin.
“We feel prepared,” Randle said. “Time to jump ball, get to it, start building day by day, game by game to the team we want to be.”
“I think you want to call it like a blessing in disguise,” DiVincenzo said. “Preseason, everything can go good and then you start the regular season and all your actual flaws show. I think we got exposed in certain ways — the number one way was our competitive spirit. So we had a really good week of practice. He challenged us. We challenged each other. And honestly, I think we really challenged ourselves to come in and work for this last week. I think where we are mentally in our spirit and everything going into this first game is way different.”
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.
