The scary part is that the Knicks didn’t play badly.
In fact, his offensive attack was as good, if not better, than he had been all season.
Julius Randle was his usual handful. The sensation of the rookie Immanuel Quickley was electrifying, his game was called “crazy and fearless” by Clippers star Paul George afterwards. And RJ Barrett was a powerful force of 23 points.
“I liked his mindset,” said Kawhi Leonard, a free agent in the off-season, about Barrett. “The sky is the limit.”
It’s the Knicks’ Big 3 of Hope – aged 26, 22 and 20, respectively.
And although the Knicks came face to face with the Clippers for three-quarters and a half, pulling in two points with 7:42 remaining after a flurry of Quickley baskets, it still wasn’t enough. Almost not.
The Clippers by Paul George and Leonard are packed, looking like championship material by defeating the Knicks 129-115 on Sunday afternoon at the Garden.
Best team the Knicks faced this season? Oh yes, said Randle, who has accumulated 27 points, 12 rebounds and five assists.
“Absolutely, 100 percent, no doubt,” said Randle, who scored inside, outside and in the middle to continue an All-Star caliber campaign. “You can see that they are a champion team that we aspire to be. We put ourselves in position. At the end of the day, they’re really good – I tip my hat to them. ”
Serge Ibaka’s offseason addition was a forgotten gem and he buried the Knicks with a 3-point basket and a 3-point play at the end of an offensive rebound.
Marcus Morris, the former Knick, looks perfectly comfortable as a complementary seat piece for the Clippers, instead of last season’s # 1 option in orange and blue.
Morris landed a dagger on left side 3 in Sunday’s fourth quarter, ending with 11 points. Morris had three of the Clippers’ 17 3s who probably kept Thibodeau up all night on Sunday after the team arrived at his former workplace, Chicago.
Morris, negotiated in the deadline of last February, miss New York? Hell, no. He sees the Garden now as his springboard.
Morris later said that he is playing for the “best team” in the NBA led by Tyronn Lue, who took the Clippers to the NBA’s second best record in 16-5.
“We have something going on,” said Morris. “I had the opportunity to show what I could do in New York. Everyone realized that. I used that platform to get to a bigger stage. I’m here to fight for a championship. I want to be part of this team to win the first championship by the Clippers and we are trending in that direction.
The Knicks did the right thing by switching Morris last February to a final player in the first round who turned into Quickley, who scored another 25 points in 27 minutes off the bench on Sunday.
Quickley faced his idol Lou Williams, shook his hand and told him so. But Quickley was not deterred. In the fourth, he grabbed an offensive rebound on the track of his own 3-point fault and floated. He paid tribute to the Clippers later.
“It takes everything to get on your way,” said Quickley. “They were making a lot of hard shots. ”
Don’t say that to Thibodeau, who commanded the NBA’s best defense and 3-point defense. Thibodeau said the “Knicks’ hits were short” on the 3 points. He also felt that they did not catch a handful of stray balls and long rebounds that resulted in more Clipper 3s.
“Offensively it was good,” said Thibodeau. “Defensively, it was not what we would like. [Scoring] 115 points must be good enough to win. ”
After the game, the Knicks flew to Chicago in snow, where Thibodeau did his best job in five seasons as head coach, creating a record of 394-255. Thibodeau lived in a skyscraper overlooking Lake Michigan and was a toast to the city. Fans loved him, although they cannot applaud him on Monday and Wednesday for the consecutive fight with the Knicks.
Thibodeau is 9-12 years old in New York, but has gained a lot of confidence from fans. This loss was not about coaching or rotations. (He asked for two timeouts 17 seconds apart in the fourth half.) Pat Riley, Red Holzman and Jeff Van Gundy could not have won a victory the way the Clippers played.
“I spent a lot of time there and I certainly enjoyed it,” said Thibodeau of Chicago. “It is a great city, a great organization, a great tradition. I enjoyed my time in Chicago, for sure. ”
With a central trio of Randle-Barrett-Quickley to work with, Thibodeau may have a pleasant time in the future, but the Clippers have shown that it is a long time.