Seconds after the final bell, the fake noise machine was turned off and the Garden was deadly silent – like the Knicks attack.
It is not a catastrophe. The Knicks still have five wins after nine games.
In 2019-20, the Knicks did not reach their fifth victory until the 25th game of the season, and only after David Fizdale was fired and Mike Miller was promoted. However, it stank, it really stank – this 101-89 home defeat on Friday for reconstruction, with no name Thunder.
By any standard, this was a nightmare offensive performance, as empty as the blue seats after the Knicks won five of their last six. Perhaps it was seeing Miller as an assistant backstage in Oklahoma City who reminded them of last season’s lost ways.
Or maybe the Knicks just have tired legs after all the minutes that their important players have recorded. Yes, that was the only concern of esteemed coach Tom Thibodeau.
RJ Barrett and Julius Randle qualified as the top two in the NBA within minutes of the game.
Randle looked a lot like Randle from last season. He went without goals in the first half. Then, in the fourth period, Randle lazily dribbled the ball up and Queens’ pride, Hamidou Diallo, took the ball from behind and ran into a basket to an 11 point lead from Thunder.
Moments earlier, Diallo (who finished with 21 points and 11 assists) had swerved to his own fault. Former shipowner George Hill had dribbled without bothering for a tray – very reminiscent of the past few years.
Each club entered the pandemic season perceived as tanking and stockpiling draft choices. Each team defied low expectations, with the Knicks now 5-4 and Thunder becoming a 0.500 team on Friday.
It was a terrible defeat for a club that debuts guys like Darius Bazley and Luguentz Dort, who has the best name and the best body in the league, but is a defensive specialist. Dort hit the Knicks in the fourth half with a 3-point ball that closed the game.
Also in the Thunder rotation is newcomer Aleksej Pokusevski, who came into play with 9.5 percent of shots, but who hit two big 3 points in the final period.
The Thibodeau Knicks had the best start to the franchise since 2012-13 entering the night.
ESPN’s new star, Kendrick Perkins, pointed to the Knicks’ new attack as the key to his revival. But Perkins put the spell on the Knicks, who hit 35.8 percent against Thunder.
Thibodeau said he felt that after the Knicks lost the advantage in the first half, they stopped moving the ball.
“We try to get out of this individually, ” said Thibodeau. “We got into this together, we have to get out together.”
Perkins was the center of the Celtics for three seasons, when Thibodeau was Doc Rivers’ assistant coach in Boston.
“In the time he was absent in his two years, he reevaluated and came back with a different coach,” Perkins said on ESPN ahead of Friday’s game. “Because some of the moves they’re making and some of the freedom they have on the offensive side – I’ve never seen a Tom Thibodeau team have so much freedom. But I love it. “
Soon, Thibodeau will receive credit for inventing the synthetic protein that is the key to the new vaccine. Seriously, Perkins’ comments on national TV deserve closer inspection before confirming their veracity.
They are playing at a faster pace, hitting 3 points more efficiently and moving the ball better than they did with Jeff Hornacek, Fizdale and Miller.
But what about X’s and O’s and more freedom? They were still in 28th place on the average score (104 ppg) before Friday’s match. Their attack will remain a problem and they will need Alec Burks from the injured swingman and sniper back sooner or later.
Players who got on the clutch, like Austin Rivers and Immanuel Quickley, were not on Friday. Rivers even missed a 3-point shot in the fourth period.
And Quickley looked like a second-round pick – finally. Quickley had his worst night as a professional – going 1 to 9 and almost breaking the table on a very strong float.
“I still see a lot of vanilla in that ending,” said former Wizards, Hawks and Raptors batsman Bryan Oringher, who ran a two-part recognition analysis of the Knicks’ attack and defense on Thursday on his YouTube channel. “But they are definitely defending. ”
Randle has been a different player after his extended off-season training camp in Dallas. Randle has been defending and attacking offensively, with 23.1-point All-Star numbers, 12 rebounds and 7.4 assists before Friday’s failure.
“At both ends of the track, we don’t play for each other, ” said Randle.
Oringher is still unsure whether this is the “fluky” Randle or a new Randle going ahead, saying that the Texas southpaw has been playing “out of his crazy mind”.
“He’s doing what he did last year,” said Oringher. “He’s just doing better.”
Thibodeau showed a special talent for staying with the right players in the fourth period – a capital sin for Fizdale. But on Friday, these players looked tired, especially Barrett.
The painful question is whether it is the beginning of a trend.