There was no stopping Utah murderer Austin Rivers in the first half of Tuesday. The Knicks guard, who was previously down, lost 25 points, the best of his career, in 12 minutes of the first half and hit his first 10 shots – five of them 3 points.
And the Knicks were beating Jazz as they did earlier this month, when Rivers scored the game’s 14 final points.
But the magic stopped for Doc Rivers’ son. Rivers sprinted, taking his third foul at 4:30 from the end of the first half. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau decided to pull Rivers and it destroyed his perfect game.
The night was never the same. Rivers didn’t return until 4:11 in the third quarter and lost his warmest hands.
Jazz recovered from 15 points below with robust defense and Rudy Gobert’s dominance to take revenge on the Knicks, 108-94, at the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.
Rivers finished with those 25 and the Knicks (8-11) finished the four-game trip to the West with 1-3. Rivers missed all four of his strokes in the second half, when Jazz heated up from 3 and the Knicks lost the final three games of the trip after scoring the first goal against Golden State.
“They did a good job in the second half [on Rivers], which we knew they would do in terms of arresting him and taking the ball out of his hands, ” said Thibodeau. “And so it is important for us to attack the blitz properly. This is something we are generally very good at. ”
Asked if he was thinking of keeping Rivers on the sidelines with three fouls, considering he was on his way to history, Thibodeau said: “I felt in that stretch, how things were going offensive, I thought we would do what we did. But it crossed my mind to leave him outside. ”
Rivers said it was “understandable”. Thibodeau pulled him.
“It was definitely not the coach, ” he said.
Instead, it may have been the tiredness of the team that Rivers brought before the game. Utah started the fourth period in an 11-0 run to end it.
“Maybe the guys are dead,” Rivers said later. “Looking across the room with five minutes left, it didn’t look like we were ourselves as a unit. ”
The Knicks were still leading by 13 until the second half collapsed. Jazz was started by Mike Conley in the third quarter – he scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half – and Gobert was excellent with 19 points and 18 rebounds.
Jazz defeated the Knicks by 17 offensive rebounds, with Knicks center Mitchell Robinson not nearly as strong as he needed to be against one of the NBA’s elite centers.
Robinson played 31 minutes, but after the game tweeted and deleted, “One day, they’ll let me play. ”
The Knicks pivot could be referring to his minutes, the lack of offensive opportunities he receives besides the alley-oops or the referees. Robinson scored just seven points in four shooting attempts and committed only two fouls.
Meanwhile, Rivers was chased when he returned at the end of the third day.
“The second half was different – each pick-and-roll was bombed,” said Rivers. “They did. I will not force shots to increase my numbers. Maybe I should have looked back. ”
Rivers said the young Knicks were not prepared for the Utah attack in the second half.
“I knew how they would do,” said Rivers.
“The initial part of [our] the defense was very good, ” said Thibodeau. “But when we give them a second, third chance, it’s hard to beat a team like that on the road. That was probably the biggest disappointment. ”
It was a strange day for Rivers, who spoke to the media after the morning shootaround and touched on two topics – Kobe Bryant’s orientation on the anniversary of his death and the club’s “fatigue” state.
The Knicks played 13 of their first 19 games on the road.
“Oh, we’re definitely tired,” ‘Rivers said Tuesday morning. “Our schedule, I would challenge anyone to compare their schedule with ours. I don’t know how a schedule can be more difficult than what we did. ”
Rivers entered the game with difficulties, with only seven points in the previous four games.
As the game progressed, Rivers looked like Bryant in the first half. Then the whole team seemed electrocuted in the last two quarters, when Jazz won its ninth straight game and advanced to 13-4.
“He helped me in times of doubt and in times of failure,” Rivers said of Bryant. “He used to come to me and talk to me about all my games, especially in the beginning [in New Orleans] when I was young and struggled. “
Rivers’ performance of at least 25 points surpassed his father’s Knicks-high of 24 points in 1993. Rivers just tied a Knicks record of 11 out of 11 shots to start a game.
In the third quarter, Rivers’ contested pull-up bounced off the edge on his 11th attempt, failing to tie the team record shared by Johnny Newman, Bernard King and Robinson.
Rivers had no help. Rookie point guard Immanuel Quickley, star of the Portland loss on Sunday, finished 1st out of 11 shots. Alec Burks, facing his old team, was worse, making 3 of 14.
“We learned from that,” said Rivers. “How many times have we gone up 13 at halftime? Not much.”