The New York Knicks’ struggles continue and with a recent lack of defense late in games, coach Tom Thibodeau’s calling card is starting to fail him.
Things have not been good for the Knickerbockers of late. The team that finished in the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference in 2021 is last in the Atlantic division and two full games out of a playoff play-in. It is a stunning fall for a franchise that had a seemingly successful rebuild and fielded a team that could compete for playoff spots for years to come.
They have now lost 12 of their last 15 and followed up a confidence-boosting win on the road against a championship-level Golden State Warriors team last week by blowing late-game leads against the Portland Trailblazers and Oklahoma City Thunder — the two worst teams in the Northwest division.
Defense is just the latest issue for the New York Knicks
The most frustrating part is that the defense coaching Tom Thibodeau has built a successful career — something the team leaned on last year — has disappeared and last season’s “Coach of the Year” has to now sadly point to his own calling card as the source for Monday’s pitiful 127-123 loss to the Thunder. A team they should be far better than.
“To be honest, I thought our defense was the issue. We scored 123 points, so we couldn’t get stops. The ball was in the paint the whole night and that’s a problem,” Thibodeau said Monday in his press conference following the game. “And again, offensively if you’re scoring that many points you should come out with a win. So we’ve gotta fix our defense.”
The former Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves coach explained that the team knew exactly what was coming but still let Tre Mann (30 points) and Josh Giddey (28 points) eat them up inside the paint.
“We’ve got to finish better. We know that. Oklahoma City is playing hard, they’re playing well. In their Chicago [Bulls] game, they had the lead most of the game. so we knew we were gonna be challenged. But the thing that they do well is they drive the ball into the paint very effectively,” said Thibodeau. “So, we knew that would be a challenge for us. Their guards got into the paint and created havoc. It was a problem.”
Tom Thibodeau’s seat in New York is getting very warm
Last year, the team was the best in opponent points allowed. The Knicks are currently ranked eighth and only seem to be getting worse as they hit the midway point of the season. If they can’t at least play defense as previous Thibodeau teams have done in the past, the franchise will have to wonder if the one-time assistant coach is the right man for the job.
The franchise isn’t likely to push the button on their never-ending coaching carousel just yet, but it seems like all the goodwill the team and the coach earned in a surprise turnaround season last year is all but gone.
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Then you add in the ongoing drama with star player Julius Randle, and new additions Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker being disappointments, and you have a mix for a building high-pressure situation for the long-time NBA coach.
In the end, all Thibodeau could offer on Monday as a strategy to turn things around was that the team would have to fight out of the current doldrums they reside in.
“We’ve just got to fight. When you get into where we are we’ve got to fight. That’s our only option,” he said.
The Knicks will welcome the Brooklyn Nets into Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.