The scary part is that the Knicks didn’t play badly.
In fact, their offensive attack was just as good, if not better than all season.
Julius Randle was his usual fist. The sensation of debutant Immanuel Quickley was electric, his game called “crazy and fearless” by Clippers star Paul George after that. And RJ Barrett was a strong 23-point force.
“I liked his mentality,” said Kawhi Leonard, a free agent in this upcoming off-season about Barrett. “The sky is the limit.”
It is the Knicks who own Big 3 of Hope – aged 26, 22 and 20 respectively.
And while the Knicks went from foot to foot with the Clippers for three-and-a-half quarters, shooting at two points with 7:42 left after a flurry of Quickley baskets, it still wasn’t enough. Not nearly.
Paul George and Leonard’s clippers are loaded, looking like championship material, defeating the Knicks 129-115 on Sunday afternoon at Garden.
The best team the Knicks have faced this season? Yes, said Randle, who accumulated 27 points, 12 rebounds and five assists.
“Absolutely 100 percent, no doubt,” said Randle, who scored inside, outside and in the middle to run an All-Star campaign. “You can say that they are a championship level team that we aspire to make. We put ourselves in position. At the end of the day, they are very good – hats for them. ”
The off-season addition of Serge Ibaka was an overlooked gem and buried the Knicks with a 3-pointer and a three-point game, delayed by an offensive rebound.
Marcus Morris, the former Knick, looks perfectly comfortable as a complementary Clippers bench instead of option no. 1 of last season in orange and blue.
Morris stabbed the left corner 3 in the fourth quarter on Sunday, finishing with 11 points. Morris had three of the Clippers’ 17 3s, which probably kept Thibodeau awake all Sunday night after the team arrived at his former job in Chicago.
Does Morris, traded at the February deadline, miss New York? Heck, no. He now sees the Garden as his cornerstone.
Morris later said he plays for the “best staff” in the NBA led by Tyronn Lue, who holds the Clippers second best in the NBA at 16-5.
“We have something to work on,” Morris said. “I had the opportunity to show what I could do in New York. Everyone noticed that. I used that platform to get on a bigger stage. I’m here to compete for a championship. I want to be part of that team to win the first championship for the Clippers and we are on trend in that direction.
The Knicks did the right thing in Morris’ trading in February last year for a late first round that turned into Quickley, who gave up another 25 points in 27 minutes on the bench on Sunday.
Quickley confronted his idol Lou Williams, shook his hand, and told him so. But Quickley was not intimidated. In the fourth, he took an offensive rebound on the band from his own 3-point miss and still floated it. After that, he paid his respects to the Clippers.
“It takes everything to get in your way,” Quickley said. “They took a lot of hard photos.”
Don’t tell that to Thibodeau, who led the NBA’s top defense and 3-point defense. Thibodeau said the “Knicks closures were short” at 3-pointers. He also felt that they did not get a handful of free balls and long recoveries that led to more Clipper 3.
“The offensive was good,” Thibodeau said. “Defense was not what we wanted. [Scoring] 115 points should be good enough to get a victory. ”
After the game, the Knicks flew to snowy Chicago, where Thibodeau did his best in the last five seasons as head coach, setting a record of 394-255. Thibodeau lived at a height overlooking Lake Michigan and was a toast to the city. Fans adored him, though they can’t cheer him on Monday and Wednesday for back-to-back with the Knicks.
Thibodeau is 9-12 in New York, but has gained a lot of trust from fans. This loss was not about coaching or rotations. (He called up two breaks 17 seconds away in the fourth quarter.) Pat Riley, Red Holzman and Jeff Van Gundy couldn’t have pulled off a win the way the Clippers played.
“I spent a lot of time there and I definitely enjoyed it,” Thibodeau said of Chicago. “It is a great city, an excellent organization, an excellent tradition. I definitely enjoyed my time in Chicago. ”
With a basic Randle-Barrett-Quickley trio to work with, Thibodeau might have a good time along the way, but the Clippers have shown it’s a long one.