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This is only the first game of preseason, but the New York Knicks have treated it like a regular season game in the manner of Tom Thibodeau.
Thibodeau scowled and lamented on the sidelines despite the Knicks passing an unfortunate Indiana Pacers team, 125-104, Tuesday night at the Garden.
This has set the tone for the coming season which comes with high expectation.
After the New York Knicks gave up an offensive rebound that drove Jeremy Lamb to three points reducing their lead to single digits, Thibodeau was furious and called a timeout with 1:43 left in the second quarter.
“The thing is, it’s early, but it was a mental error,” Thibodeau said later. “And so I think it’s important to correct these things. And no one will be perfect. We will make mistakes. If we hustle we’ll cover that, but when you make the same mistakes twice, we can’t allow it to continue. So we want to fix it. “
It’s the kind of hard training and cultivation that propelled the Knicks to a surprising playoff run last season. But this year they will no longer operate under the radar, not after filling their holes with the quadruple All-Star at Kemba Walker and the France team’s top scorer at the recent Tokyo Olympics.
The Knicks’ new backcourt settled in quickly and played well as advertised. Walker and Fournier provided the firepower early on when the Knicks took control in the first quarter.
The Pacers scored the first four points of the game. But once Walker, from the Bronx, felt right at home, there was no stopping the Knicks.
Walker, 31, signed the Knicks to a two-year, $ 18 million contract after securing an Oklahoma City Thunder buyout. A sparse but noisy crowd from Garden greeted him with a standing ovation during his introduction.
Walker responded by getting to work early in the game. He countered the start of the Pacers’ 4-0 breakout with his unofficial first basket as a Knick – a sneaky practice against last season’s shooting block leader Myles Turner.
Walker added a setback jumper and set RJ Barrett for a wide-open three-point shot in a 10-0 Knicks run that broke wide open play. Fournier had nine points and the new Knicks backcourt tandem had 13 of 36 Knicks points in the first quarter.
“It was a pretty surreal feeling, to be honest,” Walker said after the game. “When I first got there I was like ‘wow, I’m really back home.’ It comes full circle where it all started. It was a surreal feeling but a great feeling. really, really happy to be here.
Walker began to make a name for himself in basketball in this arena, along with Rice High School. He put his signature on the garden floor with his Cardiac Kemba moment that propelled UConn to the Big East title and a national championship in 2011.
On his way to stardom, Walker upset Derrick Rose and his Simeon High School team in 2007. Over a decade later, they found themselves playing on the same side, chasing the elusive NBA Championship to complete. their decorated curriculum vitae. Against the Pacers, they alternately led the Knicks ‘attack, finding gaps in their opponents’ porous defense.
They were leading up to 27 points.
Then the Knicks momentarily stopped playing. But Thibodeau has not stopped training.
“I didn’t like our defense at the end of the third [quarter]”Said Thibodeau.
The Pacers did a mini-run, reducing the Knicks’ huge lead to 21, 101-80, heading into the final quarter.
“We will take a close look at this. We have to strive to be a 48-minute team and we’re a long way from that at the moment. And conditioning is a big part of it. “
The Knicks played without their two best crosses. Mitchell Robinson has yet to be cleared for contact exercises six months after his surgery to repair a broken foot. Nerlens Noel was listed with pain in his left knee. But Thibodeau explained before the game that Noel has just rested and that he will be available for the next game. The plan is to let a rotating player rest in every preseason game.
It turned out that the Knicks were doing well despite the formidable tandem of Turner and Domantas Sabonis.
Taj Gibson, 36, left with a youthful twist as a starter. Then rookie Jericho Sims jumped off the end of the bench.
Gibson, a Brooklyn native, filled the stat sheet with 14 points, six rebounds, three assists, one block and a team record of 22 over-under. Sims, the 58th overall pick, added eight and six rebounds in a backup role while soaking up lessons learned from Thibodeau’s lick. A few defensive mistakes angered Thibodeau. But the rookie center reacted well.
“It’s a good first step. But we have to understand what it is. It’s the preseason. But every time they throw it, it’s important to compete and establish how we’re going to compete, ”said Thibodeau.
There were more good things to unwrap during the Knicks’ preseason debut.
All of their starters finished in double digits – the first sign their offseason moves will be a godsend this season.
Fournier was aggressive from the start looking for his shots. He scored 14 points, mostly on dribbling strokes which resulted in fouls. He was 5 for 6 on the free throw line.
RJ Barrett recorded 17 points, three rebounds and two assists. He appeared for 3 of 6 three-pointers and shot 7 of 14 overall as he benefited from the much improved spacing and added play to the starting unit.
Thibodeau said he was happy to see Barrett in the gym the night before, which means the Canadian winger is back to his routine.
Julius Randle didn’t force action early on, allowing Walker and Fournier to settle in first. After 10 quiet points in the first half, he exploded for 10 others in the third quarter before being definitively eliminated. Oddly enough, Randle scored his last seven points with Walker on the bench.
Walker had pulled the ball out of Randle’s hands, unlike last year when Randle doubled as the main playmaker and default shooter in the first unit. The Knicks relied heavily on him in isolation to create games that came back to haunt them in the playoffs.
This time there will be several players to ease the pressure.
Walker said it was just the preseason. They are still at the knowledge stage.
“Right now, it’s just time to get into the rhythm and the flow. Just being there with my teammates. Get to know these guys, their tendencies and things of that nature. Get a feel for each other, ”Walker said.
If this was just a glimpse of their potential, then their cap is much higher than the Las Vegas punters thought.
Walker dazzled his way at 12 points, with a 5-for-10 shot, four rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes, showing no ill effects from the knee problems that stalked him in Boston.
Thibodeau congratulated him for coming and for setting the tone.
“The game tells you what to do,” Thibodeau said. “And I think he reads the game extremely well. That veteran leadership, that shooting ability, he’s very good at pick and roll. He puts a lot of pressure on you. And he’s selfless.
“If he gets blitzed, he’ll come out of the ball. He’s not going to fight pressure with pressure. I thought we pulled off the blitz extra pass pretty effectively. “
The Knicks flaunted their new firepower dropping 46.5% from the field in 26 assists.
They pushed the pace and played with plenty of space but healed the ball with more precision in their execution. Committing just three turnovers in 48 minutes would attest to this.
With Walker and Rose leading both units, they fled when there was an opportunity. The Knicks racked up 15 quick points, six more than their worst league 8.9 per game last season. It was much closer to the 17.6 league transition points generated by the Memphis Grizzlies.
It is a byproduct of having more capable playmakers in the starting and second units.
“I don’t get carried away by the rhythm. I’m afraid we win. So I want us to be strong on both sides of the ball, ”said Thibodeau.
“There are a lot of different paths to go. It’s like taking all three. I want to take more than three but I want them to be the correct three. We talked about this in our first team meeting – how are we going to generate the three we want and have a balance to get into the paint and spray it on and do some good rim readings.
With more space and ball movement, the Knicks generated 37 three-pointers and hit 11. The number of attempts was right on target (range 37-40).
On the flip side, the Knicks relentlessly attacked the Pacers’ home defense and came away with 56 points inside the paint, 16 more than the Pacers.
Even though their offense erupted overnight, their defense was on par with the standard they set last season. They forced the Pacers to commit 16 turnovers and kept them at 41.3 percent, worse than their 44 percent of penalty kicks allowed last season. The Pacers’ 104 total points were in their rightful place. Last season, the Knicks limited their opponents to 104.7 points per game, the best in the league.
Their well-balanced attack spilled over even though it was only a preseason game.
Seven Knicks finished in double digits, with sophomores Immanuel Quickley and Obi Toppin adding 10 each on the bench.
Quickley grabbed six rebounds and delivered seven assists, a game-high, although most of it came in garbage time. Rose and Alec Burks had 16 points and five assists.
It was Toppin who generated the most buzz among the reserves.
Toppin moved with more confidence and fluidity. The Knicks’ 2020 lottery pick scored on the transition dunks and around the basket. But his most electrifying bucket wasn’t the one he made above the rim. It was a spinning motion towards the basket following a nasty crossover.
Kevin Knox put the icing on the cake of his opening preseason win with two successive attacks in the paint in the final moments of the game, signaling the change in mindset as he fights desperately for minutes in the final year of his rookie contract.
It was a total masterclass of a deep sleeping Knicks team once again.
In the annual NBA GM poll, the Knicks received no votes to duplicate or surpass their top-four ranking in the East. Seven teams, including the Pacers, received votes and were ranked ahead of them.
“I do not care. Most general managers have never played basketball. Let’s be realistic, ”Walker said in response. “Who cares what they think. I don’t care. We believe in ourselves. We’re going to play so hard every night. And that’s going to give us a chance to win every night.
It is a principle of Thibodeau which was in the spotlight on Tuesday.
There are no fake plays for Thibodeau. It demands the best effort in every game as they strive to become a 48-minute team and move closer to a true rivalry.
When Thibodeau called that time out with 1:43 left in the second quarter, he was disappointed with the discouraged effort. Then he reminded his team of their goal.
Message sent.
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