New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau could have walked into Tuesday’s postgame availability with a sign on his forehead, one line plastered that could answer any question from any reporter.
What in the world do you want me to say?
The Knicks were missing their three best players — and arguably their fourth-best, too, depending on your opinion of
Mitchell Robinson — Tuesday against the
Atlanta Hawks. It’s no surprise they still played hard. No surprise they didn’t quit when they got down early, roaring back from down 22 points to tie the game in the second half before eventually running out of gas. No surprise that the offense struggled, even though it created acceptable, open looks against a notoriously porous defense. And no surprise, the short-handed Knicks lost.
These days, even after a 116-100 defeat to the 10th-place Hawks, analyzing a squad that has dropped eight of its past 11 games is a shallow exercise. Remove four starters from any team, and life won’t be cushy.
The Knicks haven’t had Robinson (ankle) since December,
Julius Randle(shoulder) and
OG Anunoby (elbow) since the end of January, and now they’re without
Jalen Brunson, who is dealing with a knee contusion.
This is not even an impression of what they are supposed to look like.
Miles McBride isn’t supposed to play more than 46 minutes a night — and over the past two games, no, that is not an exaggeration.
Josh Hart is not supposed to run for 40-plus minutes in seven consecutive games.
Donte DiVincenzo,
for as tremendous of a season as he’s having, is not supposed to take 24 high-stress shots, as he did against Atlanta.
The hope is that the injured players emerge to create a postseason threat. Brunson’s knee contusion sounds like it could be a short-term injury. Anunoby is going through on-court work and could return this month. Randle, who famously dreads sitting out games, hasn’t yet been cleared for contact but is pushing to play again, hoping he can rehab his dislocated shoulder. If he had his way, he’d be back yesterday.
The Knicks hoped to bide their time until the recoveries of those three and possibly Robinson, whose status is uncertain. Now, they have neither the quality nor the quantity to keep pace with the league’s elite, but once they do, a facsimile of their 14-2 January could come — only this time, it would be in April and May. And yet, with 20 games to go in the schedule and with four teams suffocating them, there is only so much time to bide.
The middle of the Eastern Conference playoff picture has converged into a mosh pit, and because of this recent skid, even if there isn’t much long-term analysis to take away from the group’s nightly performances, the Knicks are at risk of getting squished.
One win or one loss could be the difference between home-court advantage and the Play-In Tournament.
With the
Orlando Magic’s
119-109 win over the dreadful
Washington Wizards on Wednesday night, the Knicks (36-26) are now the No. 5-seeded team in the East. New York is only a half-game ahead of the sixth-place
Miami Heat, one game ahead of the seventh-place
Philadelphia 76ersand 1.5 games ahead of the eighth-place
Indiana Pacers. Being the No. 3-seeded team, which the Knicks once were, is growing out of reach.
Get Anunoby and maybe Robinson back, and the defense can restore its dominance. The Knicks were the
NBA’s stingiest team in January. Adding a couple of NBA All-Defensive-caliber guys can get them back there. When Randle returns, Brunson will run alongside someone who can properly spell him when opponents double-team him. The offense will open up again.
There was a stretch not long ago when the Knicks looked like contenders, winning 15 of 17 after Anunoby first joined the crew. And it wasn’t just the media or fans who bought into them; the organization did, too.
In February, the Knicks traded a promising 23-year-old,
Quentin Grimes, for a couple of veterans,
Bojan Bogdanović and
Alec Burks. The move was supposed to add bench scoring behind Brunson, which the team had lost when it traded
Immanuel Quickleyand
RJ Barrett to the
Toronto Raptorsin the Anunoby deal. The objective was to help today’s roster.
New York won a playoff series last spring. This time around, the goals were even more ambitious. But the more time its stars miss, the more that one month of dominance risks becoming less of a reality and more of a tease.
“I feel if this team gets healthy, we can make noise,” Hart said. “Obviously, you don’t want to be in the Play-In. You’d like to have that three or five days of rest going into the first round. It’s a cliché Thibs thing, but we’re just trying to take it one day at a time. We’re going to get guys back soon, but we have to keep pushing. At the end of the day, we are where we are and I like this team.
