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Steve Kerr praised Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks as “a typical Thibs team” on Thursday, saying they had “defended like mad” while “building a foundation” to finally reemerge as a winning ball club.
Such strong words from the three-time NBA championship coach were to mean a lot more after the Knicks opened a four-game Western swing with a clear 119-104 victory over the Kerr Warriors in San Francisco. It was their third straight defensive win – after a five-game losing streak – to tie their 8-8 record.
“It means we have a lot of work to do. We can’t feel good, we have to keep working, ”Thibodeau said after the game. “It’s a long season. You have to proceed step by step. There are some things we have done well. We had some good victories. But we also had games where we could have played a lot better.
“So we have to be honest with ourselves and know that there is a lot of work to be done and that we are able to improve and do a lot better. This is our challenge. “
RJ Barrett scored 18 of his career-high 28 points in the first half, while Julius Randle continued to build his All-Star CV with nearly his second triple-double of the season (16 points , 17 rebounds and nine assists).
“We just worry about ourselves … and we come into every game feeling like we should win the game or give ourselves a chance to win the game,” Randle said after the Knicks improved to 5-4 on the road. “I think we have a good team and we play good team basketball.”
Backup center Nerlens Noel recorded four of the Knicks’ nine blocked shots, Mitchell Robinson scored all of his 18 points after halftime and Alec Burks contributed 11 points in 31 minutes on the bench in his first game since he sprained his ankle on December 27.
Stephen Curry finished with a high 30 points, but the two-time MVP committed four turnovers and missed nine of 14 attempts by a distance of 3 points. Golden State (8-7) played the last two quarters without Draymond Green after getting his second technical foul just before intermission.
“A guy like Curry is impossible to keep with one guy. I thought Elfrid [Payton] did the best job possible, ”said Thibodeau. “What you’re trying to do is make him work as hard as you can on everything. He missed a few shots that he probably normally does, and I think being shorthanded we loaded him up around the time Draymond was sent off.
Reggie Bullock (12 points) had three 3-pointers in the first four minutes and combined with Barrett for 23 points in the first quarter, as the Knicks shot 54.5 percent from the ground and took a 40-31 lead – their best score for any quarter this season.
Curry, the NBA’s third-highest scorer (28.1 points per game) as the game entered, was held scoreless for the first eight minutes until he finally converted a three-point play at the end of the period.
Randle responded with a three-point game for the Knicks, and Curry missed his free throw after Payton (15 points) hacked him while draining a 26-footer past the arc. But Payton rolled a 3 to break a 55-55 draw en route to a 63-57 Knicks lead in two quarters.
Robinson dived twice and scored the first nine of his 18 points in the second half through the third as the Knicks increased their lead to 89-76 early in the final quarter.
The first of two base dunks by rookie Obi Toppin and a 3-pointer by another first-round pick Immanuel Quickley put the Knicks in the lead by 16 just three minutes after the fourth.
“I’ve said it from the start, I love our young guys, especially with their attitude and their approach,” said Thibodeau. “Every day, they come with a lot of energy. Some days we make mistakes. But the next day there is a determination to correct mistakes and get better. If we do this every day, we will continue to grow.
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