Something special is happening here.
There haven’t been many bright moments for the Knicks against Stephen Curry since the Warriors recruited him in 2009.
But that became one of them on a Thursday night in San Francisco, when the Tom Thibodeau Knicks train ran through California and recovered a .500 record.
The stars of the night were RJ Barrett, with 28 points in his career, and Julius Randle, who recorded almost a triple-double. Not Curry.
“It’s a typical Thibs team,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said earlier. “It simply came to our notice then. They are building a foundation. ”
The Knicks went on to build a three-game winning streak after closing Curry in the second half and beating the Warriors in an exhilarating, wire-to-wire, 119-104 victory.
“I don’t think we look at ourselves as a subdog,” Randle said. “We look at ourselves as a good team. We have pretty good confidence in the team. ”
After looting the San Francisco Warriors’ new digs, Thibodeau paid homage to Golden State and downplayed his team’s 8-8 mark.
Before starting this journey with four games in the west, Thibodeau said that the statistics that showed the Knicks as the best defensive team in the league were not important. Coach Knicks said he just cares about victories, and now his team has three straight triumphs to hang on the trophy wall.
It was still not enough for Thibodeau to give in to his team’s unexpectedly solid start.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Thibodeau said. “It simply came to our notice then. There are things I did well. We had some good victories. We also had games where we could have played much better. We need to be honest with ourselves and know that there is a lot of work to be done, but we are getting better and doing much better. ”
Curry haunted the Knicks franchise forever. The Warriors’ megastar came a slot away from sliding to the eighth option of ’09, where the Knicks waited with open arms.
All these years later, the Knicks and their defense finally found a night to enjoy against Curry.
In the first eight minutes of the game, Knicks goalkeeper Elfrid Payton kept Curry without a score. Curry warmed up, scored 20 points until the break, then stopped him cold in the second half. He filled his stats during the fourth quarter’s garbage time to reach 30 points, but shot only 5 of 14 out of 3.
“A guy like Curry, it’s impossible to guard against a single guy,” Thibodeau said. “I thought Elfrid did a very good job. What you are trying to do is make it work as hard as you can for anything. ”
At the end of the third quarter, Curry coughed the ball and Randle, who had 16 points, 17 rebounds and nine assists, got it and started a quick half that Barrett finished with 12 points.
Barrett may be weird, but he’s on the most brilliant trip of his career, beating the Warriors relentlessly and even hitting the 3-point line for 2 of 3 marks.
“He plays a great game everywhere – he has a good mix of score and pass,” Thibodeau said.
Barrett’s quick bucket came out of Curry’s fourth turnover – and that was the game. The Warriors scored 17 points in that third quarter and followed 89-76 entering the last period.
In the fourth quarter, Curry was on the bench, shaking his head. Either he wanted to get back in the game on the second night of a back-to-back, or he couldn’t believe his team was losing so much to the Knicks,
The Warriors have the highest salary in the league, and the Knicks the lowest – $ 18 million below the salary cap. But the league’s growing defensive juggler continued to grind and got a stronger central game from the tandem of Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel (four blocks).
Knicks also received help from referees. Draymond Green took an early technique – deservedly – but a second delay in the first half that led to his expulsion was a referee’s mistake. Green was shouting at a teammate, not at the officials. Hell, the Knicks get breaks.
They may have gone 8-8, but their long-suffering patrons are watching this awful team on TV. The Post has learned that the Knicks have increased by 26% in terms of watching on the MSG network last season at this time.
You could say that before the competition Kerr was worried that the Warriors could take the Knicks easily. He said he was worried about the “energetic and emotional” state of his team in the second stage of a back-to-back and had to rely on “fundamentals”.
For the third game in a row, the Knicks had energy and another victory as the Thibodeau train followed. Next stop: Sacramento.