Another day, another loss. That’s a bit of a stretch, I know, but it’s how things are going more often than not for the New York Knicks in February as they navigate the second half of the season while waiting for their banged-up players to make their respective comebacks ahead of the playoffs.
On Tuesday, in the second game of a back-to-back homestand, the Knicks lost to the visiting New Orleans Pelicans 115-92 and offered little to no resistance with the fourth quarter ending in a Manhattan Carnage.
Here is what Coach Thibs and some other folks, including Zion Williamson and other people across the NBA nation had to say about what went down in New York during the last few hours.
Tom Thibodeau
On the team’s collective performance in a challenging game against the Pelicans…
“Start of the third [quarter], we still fought. I thought we had a chance in the fourth, but then we fell short. But I thought everyone gave everything they had.”
“First half was excellent. (At the) start of the third we had a couple of wide-open shots that we missed and then that led to not making transitions the way we needed to.”
“We knew we were gonna have to have volume 3s and we were gonna have to make [them] to have a chance.”
On what he can learn from a game like this…
“A lot. First half, guys really fought hard (against a) tough team, very good team, they have a lot of weapons. Guys were scrambling, playing tough, but we fell short at the end.“
On the New Orleans Pelicans’ roster and players’ skill sets…
“They’ve got great versatility. When you look at their team, Zion has the ability to bring it up, [Brandon] Ingram is terrific. People probably overlook Herb Jones, he’s a terrific player, he’s an all-around basketball player, he’s a terrific player. He does everything well. He’s got great vision, he can run the point, he sees over people. Ingram, same thing, with his size he can pass over people. And Zion’s incredibly unselfish as well. They’re strong on both sides of the ball. Throw in [Jonas] Valanciunas and what he brings. Their defense is terrific.”
On the challenge of compensating for injured players…
“Obviously, you don’t replace Julius or Jalen with an individual player. We have to do that collectively. But when those opportunities do come, I think it’s good to get Deuce [McBride] more minutes. So take advantage of the opportunity that he’s getting to see him grow. Saw that with Precious [Achiuwa] when he came in.”
“The one thing that when you get injuries, it’s an opportunity for you to get a better look at and develop some of the other guys. So that’s the way we look at it and then everybody’s a little different, different strengths. So get in there, play to your strengths. You don’t have to change the way you play. Don’t try to be Jalen, don’t try to be Julius, be you. And if we do that, if we defend and we rebound and we keep our turnovers down, we’ll be in position to win.”
On Jalen Brunson’s injury forcing him out of Tuesday’s matchup…
“He took some hits in the game. When he woke up this morning he had some spasms. He tried, he went through a bunch of treatments and stuff, so we tried to see where he was and just didn’t feel good about it.”
On Isaiah Hartenstein’s ongoing Achilles issues…
“Same thing. Just where we are in the season, we thought the smart thing was take tonight off, get rest, do your recovery. He came in and we knew it would be limited. We wanted to see where he was. OK, where we are right now, it’s better—he’s ramping things up again. That’s where we are with that.”
On the inevitability of injuries no matter how you spread the playing time…
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