With Heat visiting, Knicks have a chance to prove they can beat a top team
Knicks' Quentin Grimes drives past Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, in Milwaukee. Credit: AP/Morry Gash
The Knicks scattered for various locales Thursday, a day off allowing the team to enjoy Thanksgiving with family and friends. And when they return to the court — the way-too-orange in-season tournament court at Madison Square Garden — a quick return to reality awaits.
The Knicks will host the Miami Heat, the team that has been their most intense rival for decades and the one that ended their season in the playoffs six months ago. And while there is plenty of focus on the in-season tournament, it presents another test and measuring stick for the Knicks.
“it’s kind of a rivalry,” Quentin Grimes said after Wednesday’s practice. “Every time we go down there, there’s a lot of New York fans. They kinda come up here. Jimmy [Butler] did his thing last season in the playoffs against us, so there’s gonna be a little bit more urgency when we play an in-season tournament game. So definitely gonna be a lot more urgency going into that game.”
But for the Knicks, it’s not just that it’s the Heat, but that in a challenging early-season schedule, they have yet to prove themselves up to the challenge when the opponent is among the NBA’s top teams. They have lost twice to the Boston Celtics and were beaten by 17 points in Minnesota on Monday.
The Knicks could point to the schedule — the second loss to Boston was on the second night of a back-to-back set of games and the Minnesota loss was the final stop on a five-game road trip, the sixth game in nine days. But what they have shown is that they can win the games they are supposed to win but haven’t proved that they can move up to another level from last season.
“It’s exactly what it is,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I think we had a challenging start, because of the way it unfolded, but sometimes the schedule is in your favor; sometimes it’s not. But I thought overall, we handled it well. And the six in nine, I considered that first game — it was a noon game at the Garden. Basically had to treat it almost as if it were a road game.
“I think we’ve steadily gotten better. There’s still obviously a lot of work to be done, and there’s many things that we have to improve upon. But just keep the focus on each day. Don’t look backward. Don’t look ahead. Concentrate on exactly what’s in front of us and prepare the best you can to improve. And if we do that, if we’re doing the right things, we’ll continue to get better.”
Still, it’s hard to look at anything other than the Heat when they come to town. While Thibodeau dismisses the importance of any game over any other, the players remember what happened last season.
“Yeah, I think so, just knowing they kinda got an advantage over us,” Grimes said. “They beat us [four-] two. A game that we could’ve won, Game 6 — you know what I mean? They’re coming in with kinda a little bit of an advantage. We gotta kinda come in with a chip on our shoulder going into this game.”
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.
