The players just didn’t bring it, for whatever reason. They were sleepwalking.
Slow starts are becoming the norm and that’s not a good sign because then you have to spend a lot of unnecessary energy to climb back into the game and you end up playing the questionable/game time decision Jalen Brunson 44 minutes in december, with 59 games left…
It’s the NBA, every team could beat anyone on the right night, especially with the three-point shot being the deciding factor in most games, so you have to bring it every night.
As I said many times, in my personal and very questionable rulebook when teams start the games “unprepared” the fault is on the coach, so to me so far this hasn’t been Thibs’ best coaching job, at least from a “team readiness” point of view…
KAT was dearly missed and even if it sounds like blasphemy he’s probably the guy we struggle more to replace, even more than the Captain.
There’s no one like him in the roster, offensive flow and spacing suffered.
Thibs went with Sims over Precious to start the game and just like last year (when he started him over I-Hart before he saw the light) the decision bite him and we were down 9 in a hurry.
Speaking about the Captain, in my opinion his gaudy offensive numbers were a bit misleading.
He scored a lot in the 1st half but with 4 turnovers (and only 2 assists) then he reversed in the 2nd where he shot badly (4-11, 0-3 3FG) but passes more (8 ast, only 1 turnover, I don’t think it’s a coincedence both wings heated up in the 2nd half when the ball moved more).
He’s dinged up and he shouldn’t be playing 44 minutes on december 7th.
He’s also terrible on defense, even worse than last year (except for charges against freight train opponents) and mercilessly targeted but it isn’t a surprise.
Well, it was a poor game, nights like this happens during an infinite regular season and I’m on with who says that RS seeding isn’t so important.
This team has shown it can be a juggernaut on offense and there were some moments of pretty good defense even yesterday*, just get in the postseason, stay healthy and then anything can happen.
Get ready for the next game Knicks!
* I still think this is Year-1 of a 3-year window.