Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau wore a look of weariness as he sat at the podium in the press room at Madison Square Garden late Tuesday night.
Minutes prior to his arrival, Thibodeau’s team had just faded in the final 6:30 of the fourth quarter to lose to the Golden State Warriors 114-102. Down only 94-93 near the midpoint of the period, they were outscored 12-0 by the time the huge scoreboard hovering over the court read 2:39 to fall behind by 105-93. Ultimately, the Knicks’ chances to leave the building with a win were scuttled by a roughly four minute offensive drought.
The defeat was a contrast to the 40-21 Knicks’ two prior games, which were hard-earned, uplifting road wins — first over the Memphis Grizzlies last Friday (114-113) followed by a 116-112 overtime victory against the Miami Heat on Sunday. With his team starting a a five-game, seven-day road trip tonight, beginning with the Los Angeles Lakers, Thibodeau refrained from looking too far ahead; the mental preparation for the next game would come later as his thoughts were on solely on what went wrong in succumbing to the Warriors, powered by guard Stephen Curry’s team-high 28 points.
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“Yeah, to start, we were low energy coming out to start the 3rd quarter, so they made up that ground real fast,” he said, referencing the Knicks’ 55-47 halftime lead, which increased to 12 points before the Warriors went up 64-62 in less than five minutes.
“Then we fought back and went back and forth and then, a couple of mental errors and left wide-open three-point shooters against a team that’s good. You just can’t do that, particularly when you’re shorthanded, you know, we can’t throw possessions away.”
The Knicks played without All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns, who missed the game due to personal reasons. His absence was particularly felt late. With the Warriors defense blitzing point guard Jalen Brunson, who ended the evening with 25 points, forcing the ball out of his hands, forward OG Anunoby, the Knicks’ leading scorer on the night with 29, was the only other player generating offense.
Now the charge for the Knicks is to chart a positive course out west and maintain their third-place standing in the Eastern Conference. They were 4 1/2 games ahead of the No. 4 seed Milwaukee Bucks when the NBA schedule began last night with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics holding the top two spots, respectively.
Knicks guard Deuce McBride offered the prescriptions for success over the next week.
“Just to really be banded together a lot more,” he said on Tuesday. “I feel like we’ve been a great road team all year… just our preparations coming into a game knowing our opponent better than they know themselves. So, I feel like for us we just have to stick together and stay focused.”
The Knicks will face the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, the Sacramento Kings on Monday, the Portland Trailblazers next Wednesday and conclude the stretch with a rematch against the Warriors on March 15.