{"id":140888,"date":"2020-12-24T07:17:38","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T04:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/tom-thibodeaus-mission-with-knicks-is-clear\/"},"modified":"2020-12-24T07:17:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T04:17:38","slug":"tom-thibodeaus-mission-with-knicks-is-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tom-thibodeaus-mission-with-knicks-is-clear\/","title":{"rendered":"#Tom Thibodeau’s mission with Knicks is clear"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Tom Thibodeau’s mission with Knicks is clear<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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The tricky part will be culling the good stuff from the first 24 minutes, cultivating the aspects of those first two quarters that had Knicks players floating off the court at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and Knicks fans \u2014 even the most jaded, even the most wounded, even the most skeptical \u2014 involuntarily hearing this come from their mouths at halftime:<\/p>\n

\u201cHmmmmmmmm \u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time an overmatched Knicks team has tried to inject some kind of life and promise into the earliest hours of a season. But this is the first time the Knicks have Tom Thibodeau as their coach. This is why they hired him. This is why he\u2019s here. Pick your pretender from the recent past \u2014 David Fizdale, Jeff Hornacek, Derek Fisher, keep going \u2014 and they never could quite figure out how to build on small victories and modest strides.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau must, because so much of this season is likely to look the way Wednesday night\u2019s lid-lifter in Indianapolis looked, a 121-107 loss to a Pacers team that is better than them both on paper and on the floor. Most NBA teams are right now. That\u2019s the reality of Knicks life right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou either win,\u201d Thibodeau said, \u201cor you learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happ<\/a>ened later shouldn\u2019t lessen the impact of the first two quarters when the Knicks were full of just about everything you want from a basketball team on the come: fast legs, unselfish players, dead-eye shooting. If a 61-point defensive effort isn\u2019t exactly one pulled from the classic Thibodeau Catalog, it was as much a product of a brisk pace as anything else. And the Knicks were keeping up.<\/p>\n

Until they weren\u2019t. Until they couldn\u2019t. Until the Pacers caught them, passed them, lapped them, beat them. Going to happen a lot this year. What matters as much as this final score is the next one. The Knicks return to the Garden for real for back-to-back game<\/a>s against the Sixers and Bucks Saturday and Sunday. Same deal: nobody expects a win either night.<\/p>\n

\"There
There were a lot of positives to take from Tom Thibodeau\u2019s first game as Knicks head coach.<\/figcaption>
NBAE via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Same deal: they need to show something like they did across the first 24 Wednesday night. Maybe a little more. That\u2019s on Thibodeau, to figure a way. The NBA schedule is funny: it comes at you immedia<\/a>tely and relentlessly, even at 10 games shorter. Even in a pandemic. We have seen how quickly it can get away the last decade or two. This one can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur schedule tells us we have to be ready to be better every day,\u201d Thibodeau said. \u201cWe played about 24 minutes of good basketball; to win on the road you have to do a lot better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those 24 minutes though \u2026<\/p>\n

RJ Barrett, who had to spend a full spring, full summer and full fall stewing over being snubbed from last year\u2019s all-rookie teams, who has had to listen to the laments of fans who now talk about the Zion-Ja two-man draft, looked hellbent on sending his own message, following up a promising exhibition season with 26 points (11 of 15 shooting), eight rebounds, five assists.<\/p>\n

Julius Randle was steaming toward a trip<\/a>le-double before hitting foul trouble in the third, but still put up 17 points, eight boards, nine assists. Alec Burks was terrific with 22. And then there was Immanuel Quickley, the rookie, first point guard off the bench, who was providing a splendid spark of fire and energy when he developed a hip pointer late in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

That was the first unwitting, unwanted harbinger of what would soon follow. The Knicks still led 77-76 halfway through the third quarter. By period\u2019s end it would be 88-82 the other way. And then it really got tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a learning experience,\u201d said rookie Obi Toppin after scoring nine points (all on 3s), adding three rebounds and two blocks in his official debut. \u201cAll of us have to get better at what we\u2019re doing on court. We have a lot of games in front of us and a lot to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

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