Seconds after the last buzz, the fake noise machine was turned off and the Garden dead quiet – like the Knicks’ offense.
This is not a disaster. The Knicks still have five wins after nine games.
In 2019-20, the Knicks scored their fifth win until the 25th game of the season, and only after David Fizdale was sacked and Mike Miller was promoted. Nevertheless, this stinks, it really stank – this 101-89 home loss Friday for rebuilding, no name Thunder.
It was by any standard a nightmare offensive performance, as empty as the blue seats after the Knicks won five of their last six. Maybe it was seeing Miller as an assistant on the Oklahoma City sideline that reminded them of the lost manners of last season.
Or maybe the Knicks just got tired legs after all the minutes their important players scored. Yes, it has been determined as the only concern about valued coach Tom Thibodeau.
RJ Barrett and Julius Randle counted as the top two in the NBA in the minutes within the game.
Randle looked too much like Randle from last season. He was kept pointless in the first half. In the fourth quarter, Randle dribbled the ball lazy field and the pride of Queens, Hamidou Diallo, stripped the ball from behind and chased in for a set-up for an 11-point Thunder lead.
Moments earlier, Diallo (who finished with 21 points and 11 strokes) had his own mission tilted. The ancient point guard George Hill dribbled unhindered for a layup – reminiscent of the past few years.
Each club has entered the pandemic season, which is considered catching boards. Each team defied low expectations, with the Knicks now 5-4 and the Thunder becoming a .500 team on Friday.
It was a bad loss against a club starting guys like Darius Bazley and Luguentz Dort, who have the league’s best name and best body but are a defensive specialist. There, the Knicks beat in the fourth quarter with a game-sealing three-pointer.
Also, newcomer Alexei Pokusevski, who shot into the game, was 9.5 percent in the Thunder turn, but hit two big three-pointers in the final period.
Thibodeau’s Knicks had the best start to the franchise since 2012-13 that evening.
ESPN’s new outspoken star, Kendrick Perkins, cites the Knicks’ new offense as a key to their revival. But Perkins put the witch on the Knicks, who shot 35.8 percent against the Thunder.
Thibodeau said he feels that after the Knicks lost an advantage in the first half, they stopped moving the ball.
“We tried to get out of it individually,” Thibodeau said. “We got it together, and we had to get out of it together.”
Perkins was the center of the Celtics for three seasons when Thibodeau Doc Rivers’ assistant coach was in Boston.
“In the time he was down in his two years, he reevaluated himself and he got another coach back,” Perkins told ESPN before Friday’s game. ‘Because some of the plays they make and the freedom they give offensive, a team of Tom Thibodeau have never seen so much freedom. But I love it. ‘
Soon, Thibodeau will get credit for inventing the synthetic protein that the new vaccine contains. It’s serious that Perkins’ comments on national TV deserve further investigation before being confirmed.
They play at a faster pace, hitting 3-points with higher efficiency and moving the ball better than they did under Jeff Hornacek, Fizdale and Miller.
But what about Xs and Os and more freedom? They were still 28th on the standings (104 ppg) ahead of Friday’s stone. Their offense will remain a problem, and they will need the injured swing, Alec Burks, sooner rather than later.
Players who performed in the clutch, such as Austin Rivers and Immanuel Quickley, were not present Friday. Rivers even missed a 3-point shot in the fourth quarter.
And Quickley looked like a second round – finally. Quickley had his worst night as a pro – he goes 1-for-9 and breaks the backboard almost on a too hard driver.
“I still see a nice vanilla at the end,” said former Wizards, Hawks and Raptors scout Bryan Oringher, who conducted a two-part investigation into the Knicks’ attack and defense on his YouTube channel on Thursday. “But they definitely defend.”
Randle was another player after his extended out-of-camp season in Dallas. Randle defended and tore it offensively, with the All-Star numbers of 23.1 points, 12 rebounds and 7.4 assists ahead of Friday’s bad loot.
“On both sides of the floor, we did not play for each other,” Randle said.
Oringher is still not sure if it’s the ‘fluke’ Randle or a new Randle who is saying ahead and says the Southpaw from Texas played ‘out of his freaking mind’. ‘
“He’s doing what he did last year,” Oringher said. “He just does it better.”
Thibodeau showed the ability to stick with the right players in the fourth quarter – a cardinal sin of Fizdale. But on Friday, those players looked tired, especially Barrett.
The painful question is whether this is the beginning of a trend.