Knicks' schedule thus far has set a tiring pace
MINNEAPOLIS — It was quiet in the postgame locker room late Monday night, maybe a little bit because the Knicks had been soundly beaten by the Timberwolves, but it seemed like it might be — as reluctant as the Knicks might be to admit it — fatigue.
However you wanted to sum it up, this game concluded an arduous start to the schedule this season. It was the last stop on a five-game road trip over eight days. (And you can make it six games in nine days if you add the home game right before flying out to start the trip with a back-to-back set.)
And through the first 14 games as a whole, the Knicks have managed an 8-6 record while playing nine on the road and having four sets of back-to-back games despite the NBA schedule makers' efforts to reduce that task. The Knicks are 5-4 on the road and 3-2 at home — keeping the trend from last season when they had a better record away (24-17) than at home (23-18).
“I don’t buy into that,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It’s six games in nine days, we’ve already had four sets of back-to-backs, but that’s the league. If you tell yourself you’re tired, you’re going to be tired. If you tell yourself you can get through it, you’re going to get through it. I want us to have the mentality of whatever’s in front of us, we can handle, and that’s why you have to be in great shape.”
It is a constant message from Thibodeau to his team, and the Knicks have compiled a roster of players who buy in. Julius Randle arrives in better shape every season. Jalen Brunson is a tireless worker. RJ Barrett only seemed slowed by the illness that sidelined him for three games on the trip. Mitchell Robinson never stops chasing rebounds.
But the Knicks still looked like a tired team, not just in the postgame locker room, but on the court.
Even if the mental approach is to never admit it, the Knicks did look tired on the last stop. The team stayed overnight in Minnesota rather than take a red-eye flight home. They don’t play again until Friday. And while they are home for the next four games, the immediate path presents another test.
The Knicks host the Miami Heat on Friday, then the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. And despite surviving this 14-game stretch, the losses have been the measuring =-stick games — the season-opener against Boston, the start of this latest trip in Boston, and the last game against the Western Conference-leading Timberwolves.
“We always want to go above .500 [on the road].” Randle said. “Obviously, would have liked to finish it up stronger but we didn’t. We’ll learn from it and move on. Trending the right way, but obviously a lot of room for improvement.”
“A successful road trip,” Brunson said. “We obviously went 3-2. But we gotta continue to keep stacking days and keep stacking games and keep learning from them, whether we’re winning or losing. Continue to learn from our games.”