Something special is happening here.
There haven’t been many brilliant moments for the Knicks against Stephen Curry since the Warriors recruited him in 2009.
But this one became one of them on a Thursday night in San Francisco, when the Tom Thibodeau Knicks train rode through California and claimed a record of 0.500.
The stars of the night were RJ Barrett, with the career record, 28 points, and Julius Randle, with almost triple-double. Not Curry.
“It’s a typical Thibs team, ” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “Defending like crazy. They are building a foundation. “
The Knicks continued to build a winning streak that is now three games after ending Curry in the second half and defeating the Warriors in an exciting 119-104 victory.
“I don’t think we see ourselves as oppressed, ” said Randle. “We see ourselves as a good team. We have a lot of confidence in the team. ”
After looting the Warriors’ new excavations in San Francisco, Thibodeau paid tribute to the Golden State and downplayed his team’s 8-8 mark.
Before the start of this four-game trip to the West, Thibodeau said the statistics that showed the Knicks as the best defensive team in the league were not important. The Knicks coach said he cares only about wins, and now his team has three consecutive wins to hang on the trophy wall.
It wasn’t enough for Thibodeau to take advantage of his team’s unexpectedly solid start.
“We have a lot of work to do, ” said Thibodeau. “We cannot feel well. There are things that we did well. We had some good wins. We also had games in which we could have played much better. We have to be honest with ourselves and know that there is a lot of work to be done, but we are improving and doing a lot better ”.
Curry has always haunted the Knicks franchise. The Warriors’ megastar reached a position of sliding into eighth choice in ’09, where the Knicks waited with open arms.
All these years later, the Knicks and their defense finally found a night to savor against Curry.
In the first eight minutes of the game, the Knicks guard, Elfrid Payton, held Curry goalless. Curry warmed up, scored 20 points at the break, but they stopped him in the second half. He increased his statistics in the bad weather of the fourth quarter to reach 30 points, but hit just 5 out of 14 out of 3.
“A guy like Curry, it’s impossible to protect with a guy,” said Thibodeau. “I thought Elfrid did as good a job as you can. What you are trying to do is make it work as hard as you can for everything. “
At the end of the third quarter, Curry coughed the ball and Randle, who scored 16 points, 17 rebounds and nine assists, grabbed and started a fastbreak that Barrett ended with a 12 point advantage.
Barrett may be unstable, but he’s on his most sparkling hot run of his career, hitting the Warriors with relentless impulses and even hitting the 3-point line for 2 of 3 marks.
“He’s playing a great overall game – he has a good mix of goals and passes, ” said Thibodeau.
Barrett’s fastbreak bucket came from Curry’s fourth turn – and that was the game. The Warriors scored 17 points in that third quarter and lost 89-76 in the final period.
In the fourth half, Curry was on the bench, shaking his head. Either he wanted to return to the game the second night in a row or he couldn’t believe his team was losing so much to the Knicks,
The Warriors have the highest payroll in the league, the Knicks, the lowest – $ 18 million below the salary cap. But the growing defensive juggernaut of the league continued to crunch and had a stronger central game from the set of Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel (four blocks).
The Knicks also had help from the referees. Draymond Green picked up an early technique – deservedly – but a second at the end of the first half that led to his expulsion was a mistake by the referee. Green was yelling at a teammate, not the officers. Hell, the Knicks are taking a chance.
Maybe they are 8-8 overachievers, but their suffering patrons are watching this brave team on TV. The Post found that the Knicks increased their audience share by 26% on the MSG Network last season at this time.
You could say before the competition Kerr was concerned that the Warriors might take the Knicks lightly. He said he was concerned about his team’s “energy and emotional” state in the second leg of a consecutive sequence and that they needed to rely on “fundamentals”.
For the third game in a row, the Knicks had the energy and another victory as the Thibodeau train moved forward. Next stop: Sacramento.