Chauncey Billups: Knicks don't need superstars, just good defense
Trail Blazers coach Chauncy Billups gestures players during the first half of the team's NBA game against the Knicks on Tuesday at Madison Sqyuare Garden. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
Can a team without superstars — a team like the Knicks — go deep into the NBA playoffs?
It’s tough, but not impossible, according to Portland coach Chauncey Billups before the Knicks’ 112-84 win Tuesday night at the Garden.
Billups, you may recall, was the NBA Finals MVP on the championship Detroit Pistons team that defeated the Lakers, 4-1, in 2004. That Lakers team had four future Hall of Famers, including Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Gary Payton and Karl Malone. The Pistons? Their sole future Hall of Famer was Ben Wallace, who got there almost exclusively because of his defensive prowess.
“The game is obviously very different now, but I’m a big believer in if you can get a top-flight defensive team and you got enough people on offense that can score and get it going and you have three-point shooting, you got a chance to be elite,” Billups said. “It’s really all about having the right culture to win in today’s game. You don’t win without that at the highest level.”
Billups added that he thought that Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau was establishing that culture in New York.
“I think Thibs is doing a really good job going and getting a guy like OG, who is about everything Thibs is about,” Billups said, referring to the trade that brought OG Anunoby to New York.
That Detroit team with Billups made their run after trading for Rasheed Wallace at the deadline, finishing the season with a 16-3 run. The Knicks are 5-0 with Anunoby in the lineup.
The Knicks (22-15) are in sole possession of fourth place in the East. The three teams ahead of the Knicks — the Celtics, the Bucks and the 76ers — have multiple stars.
Notes & quotes: Thibodeau had good things to say before the game about the way Miles McBride and Quentin Grimes have been playing off the bench. Grimes had 17 points and McBride 16 on Tuesday night. “I like their aggressiveness,” Thibodeau said. “The one thing about Deuce in particular is his ball pressure is elite. He’s outstanding. Quentin is very good at defending multiple positions. Their intensity is very good together and that’s what we want.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.