The Knicks have already survived a slippery slope. They lost five in a row, not long ago, their record turning upside down, 5-3 to 5-8, and they looked a little broken and far outdated almost every time they took the floor. And I’ve seen where he’s led them in recent years.
Then the Knicks entered Boston and amazed the Celts.
He came home and held the magic on MLK Day.
I flew west to start a four-game western swing and stepped on the warriors in the lifting cap. And suddenly 5-8 returned to 8-8, the Knicks looked the way they looked in the first eight games of the season, looking hungry and upset and eager to surprise almost everyone around the NBA, starting with the jaded skeptics who call New York home.
That was only six days ago.
Now, the Knicks are coming home again after being knocked out by the Jazz, 108-94 (in a 15-lead game at the end of the second quarter), after three fell directly to the Kings (a game that felt easy enough), Blazers (a game in which they didn’t present the first half and woke up still alive on the stretch) and Jazz (that early lead built mostly by an explosion in the other half of 10 for 10 and 25 points from first half by Austin Rivers).
I come home again with three games under .500, with the eyes of a fan there, ready, wholeheartedly, hoping from the bottom of my heart that they will not see the same. In reality it is the inevitable rhythm of a season in which so little was expected, so little anticipated. The grind catches everyone, especially the teams that play every night with a talent goal.
So now, for the second time in a week and a half, we’ll learn something about the Knicks, who will receive the Cavaliers and Clippers at home, who will travel to Chicago for a two-game swing with the Bulls, then back to the garden for a back -Difficult to-back with Blazers and Heat between now and Super Bowl Sunday.
We find out something new about the Knicks, it seems, with every game, with every household, with every road trip, with every series of victories, with every lost skid. It is the learning curve of youth. And it will be full screen now. This is Tom Thibodeau’s mission. This is the challenge of the team.
“The games keep coming and the challenges keep coming,” Thibodeau said late Tuesday night, not too pleased with how the Knicks have fallen off the grid in the last three games in the West.
“You have to be prepared. Whatever your schedule, you need to find a way to win. You want to try to keep building your right habits. In the NBA, everyone has difficult stretches and that’s how you do it. I’ve been back before. We have to go back again. ”
Jazz won for the ninth time in a row, after it heated up after bringing a big advantage to the Knicks in the garden on January 6th. In many ways, he is a role model for the Knicks, a team that has grown steadily in the strength of the Western Conference by using a basketball plan as old as pick-and-roll: smart drafting, smart trading, smart signatures, smart coaching.
“They are well developed,” said Thibodeau, the admiration in his voice being clear.
Because the Knicks are a big market team, with the power of Madison Square Garden behind them, there will always be hope that an impact acquisition can eventually catapult them where they want. This, despite years of evidence to the contrary.
So it’s probably not a bad idea for Leon Rose and the rest of the team to adopt a Plan B. And Jazz’s plan is so successful that the Knicks helped a couple of Utah architects in Walt Perrin, now Rose’s assistant, and Johnnie Bryant, now one of Thibodeau’s lieutenants.
Utah coach Quin Snyder has a Thibodeau-like make-up, earned the most during his first internship as a head coach at Missouri College, and consistently built a quiet power in Salt Lake City. going 206-98 since the start of the 2016-17 season.
“These guys take the win-win business very seriously,” Snyder said last week.
You could see Thibodeau coming up with something very similar when the time is right and the team is right. For now, try to stay above water. For now, the steps are much more modest. Jazz is at a time when they have a season to enjoy. Knicks have a season to save.