Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau was impressed by the Knicks’ defensive effort in last night’s win against the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he is far from satisfied.
“I liked our energy,” coach Thibs said after the game. “Our defense is a work in progress, it’s still not where it needs to be. I thought it was a combination of things. I also thought that [the Cavs] missed some wide open ones too. But even when we’re making mistakes, we’re flying around, we’re making the attempt to get out there and challenge shots and it makes a difference.”
The Knicks held the Cavs to 86 points last night on 36% shooting from the field, a great defensive performance to most coaching standards. Thibs is not most coaches though, his expectations on that end of the floor are distinguished.
“If you play hard and you swarm and you help each other, good things can come from that,” Thibs said. “You can cover up for mistakes that you might make. So overall, I like the way we’re working. I can see a lot of the things that the guys are working on in practice carrying over to the games. It’s a long season and there’s a long way to go, we just have to get ready for our next game.”
Culture Building
Julius Randle discussed the work he’s been putting in during the offseason with the media after last night’s win. He said the front office challenged him to come back a better player, and that’s exactly what he’s trying to do.
“I just think we have the right people in place from top to bottom. They challenged me going into the offseason to come back a better player,” Randle said. “I’m going to put that pressure on myself as well to challenge myself and get better every year. Last year was a great learning experience for me. But this year I’m coming back a better player and came back in great shape. And that’s just part of the culture we’re building. We’re competing and not backing down from anybody.”
Randle notched his first triple double as a Knick and seventh of his career last night against the Cavs. Though he’s excited about the game he had, fans will be happy that he was already discussing cutting down on his turnovers.
“I just tried to take what the defense gave me, make the right plays,” Randle said. “I got to cut down on my turnovers obviously, but overall I just try to play the game the right way and make the right plays and make everybody better as well.”
Point Forward
Randle’s not the only Knick that deserves credit, though. He might be doing a great job of finding the open man, but his teammates are doing a much better job of knocking down the open shot and hitting open threes. The Knicks currently rank #1 in the league in 3pt %. When Randle was asked about this, he specifically mentioned coach Thibs’ impact.
“I think Thibs, from the start of training camp, did a great job of implementing his system of how we want to play,” Randle said. “We don’t have to second guess where we’re going to be at on the floor. We have great spacing. If the defense collapses, I can depend on whoever it is to cut or to be in the right spacing and make the easy play. We’re all just trying to make the easy play, trying to make the right play, play for each other and play unselfish.”
Randle appears to be quelling trade talks as his game continues to ascend and he solidifies himself as an essential glue-guy for this young Knicks team. Some will continue to argue, though, that Randle’s excellent play only helps raise his trade value on a team that appears committed to Obi Toppin being the future of the power forward position. As long as Randle continues to play like this, he’ll make that decision a lot tougher on the new Knicks front office.
The Knicks head to Tampa, FL on Thursday night to play the Toronto Raptors, where they have been playing home games due to Canadian travel restrictions from the coronavirus. Let’s see if the Randle-led Knicks can carry this newfound chemistry over and win their third game in a row.
Stay tuned ton knicksfantv.com for the latest Knicks news and rumors throughout the season. Also, CP and J. Ellis broke down their biggest takeaways from last night’s win with special guest Ashley Nicole Moss from All In w/ Ashley Nicole Podcast. Check it out below.
