Knicks lose game to Clippers and Cam Payne to injury
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns reacts during the second half of an NBA game against the L.A. Clippers on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden. Credit: Noah K. Murray
Tom Thibodeau never likes to look beyond the task at hand, to consider what lies ahead, whether it is a road trip approaching or a playoff berth, so so it’s hard for him to find the big picture in the Knicks’ season.
And maybe this is why: anything can happen, or more to the point, go wrong, if you are a coach who says he’s never happy and is concerned about everything.
With the Knicks on the verge of clinching a playoff spot for the third straight season, they saw not only the game get away from them but suffered another costly injury which provided even more uncertainty as they try to prepare for the larger goal of the postseason.
Cam Payne was the third Knicks point guard to go down. He sprained his right ankle and the Knicks saw an early 14-point lead disappear as they lost, 126-113, to the Los Angeles Clippers at Madison Square Garden.
Jalen Brunson was on the bench, in a sweatshirt and wool hat, nursing his sprained right ankle for the 10th straight game. Deuce McBride was there, too, with a Rangers jersey on, nursing a groin strain for a third straight game.
Payne came down awkwardly as he dropped in a floater in the lane. It was a right ankle sprain that would rule him out for the second half after scoring 15 first-half points.
“It’s tough,” Josh Hart said. “Injuries already suck and for some reason it’s smacking us in the same position. We’ve just got to piece it together. We’ve got 10 games left. we’ve got three back-to-backs I think. So it’s going to be tough. We’ve just got to find out ways to scratch out wins, hopefully get those guys back.”
That left the Knicks with one healthy point guard, Tyler Kolek. Kolek’s only impact before the last few games was in the social media accounts of fans begging to see him.
A little-used rookie, Kolek has proved to be an adept floor general, entering the night with 17 assists and no turnovers in the last two games and added five more assists before finally committing a turnover in the third quarter Wednesday. He was scoreless in 18 minutes, handing out seven assists. But he also was hard to hide defensively against the versatile and dangerous Clippers offense. Kolek found himself trying to defend the likes of James Harden and Kawhi Leonard at times.
The Knicks tried to get by with Delon Wright taking minutes at the point and Hart taking on much of the ballhandling duties, but the offense that ran smoothly at the beginning of the night seemed to fall apart and the Knicks were left playing one-on-one to try to create something. Karl-Anthony Towns had 34 points and 13 rebounds while OG Anunoby added 28 points. But everything seemed a struggle.
“Just next guy get in there,” Thibodeau said. “So I thought Tyler played well in the first half. And then Delon, who’s the next guy, get in and get the job done. That’s a big part of your approach, your teams’ approach. So I think there’s going to be adversity. You have to be mentally tough. You have to be able to get through that. You have to stay disciplined.”
The Knicks started the game with a fire like it was a postseason game, building a quick 18-5 lead and holding a 33-20 edge after one quarter with 12 assists on 14 field goals. In the wake of the 40-assist performance Tuesday the Knicks finally seemed to have found their footing without Brunson. Hart found cutters repeatedly for four first-quarter assists while Mikal Bridges had five in the quarter. But by halftime the lead was cut to 55-54 with Hart sitting much of the second quarter with three fouls.
The clinching was put off for at least a night, even if the playoff berth has not been in doubt with the Knicks tucked securely in the third spot in the Eastern Conference for nearly the entire season. Still, the magic number is 1 to secure the playoff spot, joining Cleveland and Boston in clinching in the East.
The Knicks have reached the Eastern Conference Semifinals in each of the last two season and rebuilt the roster in the offseason, adding Towns and Bridges to try to construct a starting lineup up to challenging the likes of the Celtics.
It’s been more than a decade since the Knicks reached the postseason three years in a row and it was another decade before that that they accomplished the feat. What the Knicks have built here, whether they get to the eventual goal or not, is something that they can picture being in place for years to come.
“That’s part of the goal, obviously to get to the playoffs,” Hart said. “That’d be a check. Check that box. I think it shows the stability that we’re building, the foundation that we’re building. Now it’s time to build off of that. Clinching would be nice. It shows the good stability and foundation that we’re building.”
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.
