The Knicks did not claim their sixth win last season until their 26th game, four games after head coach David Fizdale was lined up in early December, after a 4-18 record.
It’s clearly not the time to choose, but the improved team of new coach Tom Thibodeau shot just 35.8 percent off the floor on Friday night and 60 percent off the free throw line on Friday night in a 101- loss 89 against the Thunder at the Garden, who ended their tries. game wins streak.
The Knicks (5-4) were able to claim a sixth victory for the first time in nine games since the 8-1 victory in 2012-’13, when they ended with a 54-win season under current assistant coach Mike Woodson has.
“I think it was great, very important,” RJ Barrett said before the Knicks’ warm-up game. “It shows us that our work is bearing fruit and that our work is good, so we must continue to do what we do and get better every day and trust the process.”
Barrett led the Knicks by 19 points in 19 minutes, but he missed 14 of 21 shots from the floor, including 4 of 5 from the three-point series.
Leading scorer Julius Randle was in trouble early on and did not score in the first half, but finished within 31 minutes with 18 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
“Winning is always good, but I think it’s more we do every day,” Thibodeau said before the game. “There are ups and downs in a season. If we do the right things every day, we will get better and better.
“This is what you strive for. Every day that improvement. It’s a long season and we need to keep growing. There are many areas that we need to do much better. ”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Thunder (4-4) with 25 points, and Queens’ Hamidou Diallo product scored 23 points with 11 rebounds.
The Knicks, who host the Nuggets on Sunday, are led by as many as 11 in the first quarter. The Thunder scored the first eight points of the second quarter, but closed within 24-23. Kenrich Williams’ imposition gave Oklahoma City its first lead, almost halfway through the period, 28-26, and Al Horford’s 14th and 15th points of the half gave the Thunder a 39-38 two-minute lead.
A late Barrett driver and a Mitchell Robinson dunk drew the Knicks 42-42. Ten lead changes in the third quarter saw Oklahoma City rise 57-56 in the middle of the period, before a stroke and two free throws from Diallo extended the Thunder’s lead to nine.
Wednesday’s fourth-quarter hero Austin Rivers drained a three-pointer at the buzzer and an early bucket into the fourth to pull the Knicks back within four, but a steal and dunk by Diallo and a 3-pointer by Gilgeous-Alexander, the Knicks’ deficit to 13, the biggest of the game, with 4:21 left.
“We said from the beginning that the first step for us was to become a quality training team, and that’s what you have to keep doing,” Thibodeau said. “You can not wait. You can not start taking shortcuts. Once you start doing that, you will see in the results. Put in the work every day and keep getting better. There are usually very small steps. They are incremental. And you want to play your best in the end. ”