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Tag: tom thibodeau

  • Jalen Brunson injures ankle in garbage time; Tom Thibodeau has no regrets

    Jalen Brunson injures ankle in garbage time; Tom Thibodeau has no regrets

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    BOSTON — The Celtics emptied their bench. Tom Thibodeau did not.

    It’s the difference between leaving the TD Garden unscathed and potentially returning to New York down the team’s floor general and head of the offensive snake.

    When given an opportunity to sit his starters in garbage time while Celtics’ coach Joe Mazzulla cleared the bench up double digits with 38 seconds left in the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ 133-123 loss on Friday, Thibodeau chose not to.

    Now Jalen Brunson is hurt.

    Asked if he has any regrets, Thibodeau flatly said “nope.”

    Brunson significantly turned his ankle on a freak play while Celtics guard Derrick White shot a free throw with just 21 seconds left on the game clock.

    Seventeen seconds of gameplay earlier, Mazzulla took Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday out of the game, then subbed Jayson Tatum out while White, the final starter, was at the foul line.

    And after White made the free throw, with his sub waiting to check-in on the sideline, Brunson accidentally stepped on backup guard Payton Pritchard’s foot and drastically twisted his ankle before hobbling to the sidelines.

    Then he buried his head in a towel while sitting on the bench.

    He was unavailable to speak to reporters after the game.

    Thibodeau offered no additional update on Brunson’s status and said he hadn’t yet talked to team trainers about his star guard’s injury.

    This is one of Thibodeau’s specialties. He plays his starters late in games, even if they’re down big.

    But it came back to bite the Knicks on Friday, and it’s unclear if the starting guard will miss some time with the injury.

    Julius Randle turned his back to the play while attempting to inbound the ball when Brunson came up hobbling.

    The Knicks’ next game is at home on Monday against the Toronto Raptors, so they’ll have two-and-a-half days to determine his status for their next game.

    “I didn’t see what happened to be honest with you, but hopefully he’ll be fine,” he said. “We’ve got a couple days off, so we’ll see. Right now I don’t know anything. Just trying to recover from the game and reset. We’ll figure it out.”

    RJ Barrett had a situation similar to Brunson’s playing under Thibodeau two years ago.

    Thibodeau left Barrett on the floor in the final minute of a blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets in Feb. 2022, and Barrett — like Brunson — twisted his ankle before leaving the game and walking to the locker room.

    He was forced to sit four games and missed a little over a week.

    “I didn’t see what happened with [Jalen],” Barrett said. “Then even mine, I remember mine was a little freak play, my foot just got caught, tangled.”

    Like Randle, Barrett didn’t see Brunson’s injury because he was running up court after the made free throw.

    “That’s what happened with him? I didn’t see it,” he said. “Those things happen. It could have happened in the first quarter. Ended up happening at that time.”

    Donte DiVincenzo was up court with Barrett and also missed Brunson’s injury. DiVincenzo has faith Brunson will return to good health soon.

    “I know him from college and everything. He’s a warrior. So we’ll see what happens. We have a couple days. We’ll get back to New York and hopefully everything is all good.”

    It was an unnecessary injury, however, given the deficit and time remaining, and now Brunson could miss time — because his coach played him in meaningless seconds.

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    Kristian Winfield

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  • Quentin Grimes’ shooting skid continues: ‘Every shot I shoot probably weighs 100 pounds if I don’t make it’

    Quentin Grimes’ shooting skid continues: ‘Every shot I shoot probably weighs 100 pounds if I don’t make it’

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    MILWAUKEE — Quentin Grimes says he needs more shots — and that he’s not going to be effective if he’s running up and down the floor and only touching the ball once or twice in a half.

    Grimes also said he doesn’t feel like he has any margin for error — that if he misses a shot, he’s going to get pulled from a game.

    “It feels like if I don’t hit the shot, I’m coming out,” he said in the locker room on Tuesday. “So every shot I shoot probably weighs like 100 pounds if I don’t make it, and our defense, it ain’t cutting it, so I know I ain’t going back in.”

    It’s the first time Grimes has spoken publicly since the onset of his shooting skid, which continued its downtrend in his 0-for-1 shooting performance in the Knicks’ loss to the Bucks on Tuesday.

    Grimes’ only shot attempt came in the third quarter, and it was generated on a Julius Randle drive to the rim that collapsed the Bucks’ defense, leaving the three-and-D wing wide-open in the corner.

    The open shot was a bit rushed and came up well short.

    Grimes has now missed 17 of his last 21 shots from downtown for a 19 percent three-point shooting clip over his last seven games. After starting the season as a 40 percent three-point shooter, Grimes’ efficiency has regressed below 35 percent.

    Head coach Tom Thibodeau said he’s not considering a lineup change, even though Grimes’ backup, Donte DiVincenzo, was shooting the lights out before his cold night against the Bucks.

    “I look at how the unit is functioning. And so, I would say tonight, we didn’t play well, and to put it on Quentin is not fair,” said Thibodeau. “I don’t think we really had anyone who played really well. So, we’re capable of a lot better. You win together; you lose together. Just focus on the improvement and getting ready for the next game.”

    Grimes aired his grievances in the locker room postgame, pointing to the Knicks’ offense which functions largely on the shoulders of Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle and RJ Barrett.

    The third-year guard out of Houston ranks bottom-five among qualifying players in total touches this season. Dead-last on the list is Los Angeles Lakers forward Cam Reddish, who shared a similar frustration with his role during his time on the Knicks.

    “It’s just hard when you go the whole quarter without touching the ball, the whole second quarter without touching the ball, and then you get one shot and you got to make it,” Grimes said on Tuesday. “So it’s tough going out there and just standing in the corner the whole game. Then you got to make the shot when you shoot the ball one or two times per game. It is what it is. We’ll see.”

    Grimes said he doesn’t know how to find a rhythm in the current structure of the team’s offense because it takes shots to find a rhythm, and he hasn’t gotten many shots, let alone touches.

    He shot 39.7 percent from downtown from the beginning of the season through Nov. 16 but has since become a non-threat from behind the arc.

    “I feel like I just gotta get more shots. You can’t get out of a rhythm unless you shoot the ball,” he said. “So I feel like I’m coming in and I know I’m probably only gonna get one or two shots, and it’s gonna be tough because I’ve gotta make ‘em or I know I’m coming out.

    “So it’s tough like that, but you can’t let that dictate your whole game. I feel like I didn’t have to let that dictate my defense. So it’s tough but I know it won’t last forever.”

    Grimes said he had more opportunities to score and shoot last season because both Barrett and Brunson missed games for different reasons.

    “So I had the ball in my hands a little bit more — I knew I wasn’t coming out,” he said. “I knew I was going to be in there and get more shots, play the whole first quarter, the whole third quarter. I knew I had opportunities to get the ball and get my shots up. Now it’s just a matter if the ball come my way, really.”

    Brunson said it’s his job as the leader of the team to get Grimes in rhythm.

    “I think most importantly being a good teammate is the first thing I have to do. Just continue to encourage him, make sure he’s aggressive, keeps his confidence. And every player at some point goes through it,” he said on Tuesday. “I just think for us as teammates, we have to be on his side, tell him things are going to happen, continue to do what you do, do your routine, do all the stuff that helped you get here. Continue with your confidence.”

    Randle, who found Grimes for an open look he missed in the third quarter, agreed with Brunson.

    “Yeah. He has a hard job, a tough role,” he said after the game. “But we’ve gotta do a better job of trying to get him better looks, make him feel more included for sure.”

    Grimes said he’s not looking over his shoulder even though the Knicks signed DiVincenzo to a four-year, $47 million deal over the offseason. DiVincenzo has emerged as an impact player during Grimes’ shooting slump, though Grimes is undoubtedly the Knicks’ best defender.

    “You come in with a mindset that it’s a new game every time I step on the court, so you just try to have a positive mindset every time I step out there,” he said.

    Brunson reiterated it’s on the team to find ways to get Grimes involved. Josh Hart echoed a similar frustration with his role within the offense — that he was not touching the ball and asked to shoot while out of rhythm frequently — but erupted for two straight high-scoring games after sharing his frustrations with reporters.

    “Obviously, we have three players in the lineup who all go left, all do a lot of similar things,” said Brunson. “When it comes to Quentin, he’s had to keep with his confidence. He’s going to be open, he’s going to get to do stuff. He’s going to get the ball, so sometimes when the confidence is low it seems like the end of the world. But as teammates we need to pick him up and make sure he gets back on track.”

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    Kristian Winfield

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  • Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau: No defensive scheme Jalen Brunson hasn’t seen

    Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau: No defensive scheme Jalen Brunson hasn’t seen

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    MILWAUKEE — Tom Thibodeau believes Jalen Brunson is ready for whatever the Bucks — or any defense — can throw at him.

    Ahead of tipoff against the Knicks on Tuesday, Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin said “everything is on the table [defensively] when you have an adversary like Jalen Brunson.” That meant blitzing the pick-and-roll, sending an outright double-team on the perimeter, face-guarding him to prevent him getting onto the ball and guarding the Knicks’ star the full 94-foot length of the basketball floor.

    Shortly after Griffin’s comments, Thibodeau expressed confidence his star guard would be able to solve any problems thrown at him in a game.

    “I always say the game tells you what to do. There’s nothing that he hasn’t seen, The blitz or size, whatever it may be. Trust the pass, make the right reads, which he does all the time,” Thibodeau said ahead of tipoff on Tuesday. “I think all the great players, they’re used to seeing all the different schemes and it’s up to us to make sure we’re moving at the right intensity level where we’re giving him the right outlets.”

    He sure did it the last time the two teams faced one another.

    Brunson scored 45 points in the Nov. 3 meeting between the Knicks and Bucks at the Fiserv Forum, and the Bucks still had nightmares about his explosive scoring night leading into the In-Season Tournament quarterfinal on their home court on Tuesday.

    “Jalen Brunson is aggressive,” said Lillard — whose late-game heroics lifted the Bucks to victory over the Knicks in early November — on Sunday. “He’s playing with a lot of confidence, and he’s the head of the snake, so we gotta handle that.”

    Griffin said Brunson’s unique style of play makes him a difficult cover, especially given his propensity to draw fouls.

    “He’s crafty. I think continue to guard him. We have to defend him without fouling. And that’s kind of a tough task at times because you want to keep your physicality,” he said. “But also you don’t want to send him to the free throw line. He’s cunning. He knows how to draw fouls. And he does a great job with it. One thing I’ll say is just have the discipline to keep him off the free-throw line.”

    RANDLE BACK TO NORMAL

    Thibodeau said he thinks Julius Randle is back to his old self.

    After offseason ankle surgery stunted Randle’s start to the season, the All-Star forward claimed Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors in early December.

    “Just a steady climb from the start of the season to where we are now. He’s finally healthy. But sort of what we had anticipated,” he said. “I think he’s back to the level he was at last year. He’s worked extremely hard. I think the important thing is the winning that goes along with it. He’s playing at a very high level. Doing the scoring, but the playmaking has been terrific and it’s giving us great rhythm.”

    PUSHING BACK

    Thibodeau pushed back on the idea that Tuesday’s matchup against the championship-contending Bucks marked some sort of litmus test.

    “Every game’s a test, so just — I don’t want us to get caught up in hoopla,” he said. “Understand what’s important in getting ready to play. So be focused. Have great concentration. Give maximum effort. And if we’re doing the right things, the results will be good.”

    The Knicks have lost seven straight to the Bucks but each of the last three games were decided by two or fewer possessions.

    “I think they’re hard-fought games, style of play — they’re physical, we try to be physical,” Thibodeau said. “You’ve got to play for 48 minutes. It comes down to the end.”

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    Kristian Winfield

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  • Jayson Tatum cooks Knicks, again, with 35-point performance in Celtics victory

    Jayson Tatum cooks Knicks, again, with 35-point performance in Celtics victory

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    BOSTON — It’s hard to beat the Celtics when Jayson Tatum is this good.

    Tatum had 18 points through the first three quarters before scoring 17 in the fourth period alone to finish with 35 points in the Celtics’ 114-98 victory over the Knicks at the TD Garden on Monday.

    The All-Star forward shot 13-of-23 from the field and 5-of-12 from downtown while also logging seven assists and six rebounds on the night.

    “A player like that, of that caliber, you’ve gotta give him a lot of credit,” said Knicks star Jalen Brunson. “He hits shots like that, makes it look easy. We’re playing good defense. He’s making tough shots. I think next time, we’ve gotta be more prepared and be ready to adjust a little bit, but you’ve just gotta give him a lot of credit.”

    Tatum’s fourth-quarter run started two minutes into the period when the Knicks fought back from a 10-point third-quarter deficit. Isolated on the left wing against Josh Hart, who got the start in place of RJ Barrett (migraine), Tatum lowered his shoulder, took a dribble into Hart’s chest then stepped back for a mid-range two.

    Two minutes later he did the same thing, only this time from the left wing for a step-back three over Hart’s contest. The Knicks had cut the Celtics lead to just three before Tatum’s shot stunted their momentum.

    Tatum did his damage in spurts. Two minutes later, he shed Hart on a top-of-the-key screen, then lost Mitchell Robinson with an in-and-out before euro-stepping around help defender Immanuel Quickley for a layup at the rim.

    Then came the daggers: a step-back three over Robinson, a side-step corner three over Julius Randle, and a wide-open three as the shot clock sounded to put the icing on the cake and give the Celtics a 17-point lead with a minute left in regulation.

    “He’s a great player, he’s a great scorer,” said Randle. “The game always balances out or evens out. Josh, the other guys, did a good job of making it tough for him. Unfortunately, he got it rolling there in the end. He hit some deep threes there, too.”

    Tatum is now averaging 34.5 points through two games against the Knicks after hanging 34 in the season opener at Madison Square Garden.

    “Yeah, obviously a great player. Try to make him work,” said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau. “I thought Josh, Quentin [Grimes], they were there. He’s got the ability to make. And you know. Take a look at the film, see what we can do better.”

    The Knicks don’t play the Celtics again until Feb. 24, well after both the NBA All-Star break and trade deadline.

    That gives them more than three months to come up with a recipe that’ll keep Boston’s top chef from cooking the Knicks the third time around.

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    Kristian Winfield

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  • Knicks’ Tom Thibodeau on playing starters late in blowouts: ‘I’ve seen 13 points in 35 seconds’

    Knicks’ Tom Thibodeau on playing starters late in blowouts: ‘I’ve seen 13 points in 35 seconds’

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    Tom Thibodeau didn’t say a word to Julius Randle or Jalen Brunson — or anyone for that matter.

    His Knicks were up big on Sunday — a 21-point advantage with 1:20 remaining in an eventual 129-107 victory over the Charlotte Hornets, their third in a row — with a back-to-back looming against the Boston Celtics on Monday.

    Thibodeau pulled Randle, Brunson and Mitchell Robinson from the game. As the lead ballooned, the three expected to play closing minutes in the fourth quarter.

    A Thibs specialty.

    Only four days earlier, the Knicks led the San Antonio Spurs by 30 with three minutes to go in the third quarter, and he played his starters until the 1:28 mark of the fourth quarter when no run imaginable could have powered the opponent back to victory.

    Two nights before that, Los Angeles Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue waved the white flag and sent James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook to the bench trailing the Knicks by 16 at the 4:25 mark of the fourth quarter.

    Thibodeau played his starters for the rest of the period. The Knicks went on to win by 14.

    Thibodeau has his reasons, reasons he explained after sitting the trio of Randle, Brunson and Robinson the entire fourth quarter, then leaving RJ Barrett, Quentin Grimes, Immanuel Quickley, Josh Hart and Isaiah Hartenstein on the floor for extended garbage time minutes.

    Thibodeau subbed Grimes in for Barrett at the 6:59 mark of the fourth, subbed Hartenstein out for Jericho Sims 27 seconds later, then Miles McBride for Hart and DaQuan Jeffries for Quickley with just over three minutes left.

    The odd man out, Donte DiVincenzo played the entire fourth quarter.

    The rationale has its roots during earlier stints of Thibodeau’s coaching career.

    He was a member of the Houston Rockets’ coaching staff on Dec. 9, 2004, the night Tracy McGrady went nuclear and scored 13 points in 33 seconds to power a remarkable Rockets fourth-quarter comeback over the San Antonio Spurs.

    “He’s got a lotta trauma man,” Randle joked after sitting the fourth quarter. “He’s gotta work on that. He’s gotta work on that.”

    Thibodeau said he can’t even relax when his team’s up big in the fourth quarter and he’s pulled his starters from the game. He wants his players to put everything they have into each and every play, each and every day, and he’s setting the tone on the sidelines — even if he’s got McGrady PTSD.

    “In this league, no lead is safe,” Thibodeau said. “I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen 13 points in 35 seconds. So people will tell you ‘ah he needs to get the starters out of there.’ Yeah? Well I know what experience tells me.”

    Brunson and Randle seldom experience rest the way they were spectators for the fourth quarter on Sunday. The quarter off came as a surprise for the two stars who expect to carry heavy minutes burdens this season.

    “No he never tells me bro,” Randle said. “Mentally, I was ready [to go back in]. If they had one run, we was going back in for sure.”

    “I thought I was going back in,” Brunson added. The Knicks floor general isn’t sure there’s a lead big enough for Thibodeau to feel comfortable pulling his starters for good: “Always got to assume [you’re going back in],” he added. “Always assume.”

    With the second leg of a back-to-back on the road against the championship-contending Boston Celtics on Monday, Thibodeau hoped there would be an opportunity to sit his stars on Sunday.

    “You never know how the game will unfold, and we were fortunate that it did [give our stars some rest],” he said. “And then the fact the bench is playing as well as they are, and our depth is really good. So finding that balance where the starters finding get that rhythm. But you got to play well. You got to make sure you’re doing all the things necessary to improve and win. So that’s where we were. I’m glad it worked out the way it did.”

    Brunson is happy he got a chance to rest — but he says he stayed locked in until the end of the game. Thibs would approve.

    “Let’s be honest. Whenever we can win like that it’s definitely a good feeling,” he said. “I try not to check out at any point in the game. It is what it is.”

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    Kristian Winfield

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  • Julius Randle calls for less isolation amid shooting slump: ‘There’s some things that we can do different’

    Julius Randle calls for less isolation amid shooting slump: ‘There’s some things that we can do different’

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    MILWAUKEE — Julius Randle wants less isolation and more movement off the ball.

    It’s a message he’s relayed now two games in a row as his inefficient shooting start to the season crescendoed with the Knicks’ 110-105 loss to the Bucks in their first in-season tournament group stage game on Friday.

    Randle shot just 5-of-20 from the field and one-of-nine from downtown for 16 points and the Knicks fell to a 2-4 record to start the season.

    The All-Star forward reiterated he is seeing “a lot of bodies” when he attacks the rim, and pointed to some areas his role in the offense can change.

    “I think there’s some things that we can do different, but you know, we’ve just gotta working with it and keep staying at it,” Randle said in the locker room postgame. “For me personally, I think I can just play off the catch, play off the move a little bit more. For me less isolation, less getting into pick-and-rolls, just playing on the move more, rather than just catching it and staring at bodies.”

    Randle is now shooting 26-of-96 (27%) from the field and 9-of-40 (22.5%) from three-point range on the year — unrecognizable numbers for a player who earned All-NBA and All-Star honors last season.

    Many of his misses are wide-open looks. Last season, he shot 34% from three on more than 630 attempts and 46% from the field altogether.

    “I’m just not in rhythm,” Randle said in the locker room postgame. “Not in rhythm, everything just seems a little bit off, you just start pressing a little bit, but like I said, I’ve just gotta stay with it. Keep working.”

    Randle also refuses to use his offseason ankle surgery as an excuse for his inefficient shooting, even though head coach Tom Thibodeau said the summertime procedure threw a wrench in the star forward’s preparation ahead of the season.

    “I’m not gonna sit here and make excuses or anything,” he said. “Like I said, just gotta keep figuring it out, keep trusting the process, and it’ll fall into place.”

    Despite Randle’s shooting struggles, Thibodeau wants his star forward to continue to let the threes fly.

    “He’s gotta trust the process. If you’re open, you gotta shoot,” he said. “Shoot it well. Don’t miss short, be long. But I thought we created a lot of good, open looks. You can’t hesitate. You gotta let it go.”

    Thibodeau said Randle has to trust the pass when defenses are crowding the paint.

    “The game tells you what to do,” he said postgame. “So when you look at their defense, what were they doing? They were collapsing. They’ve got two seven footers, so when they collapse, you have to trust the pass.”

    Knicks star Jalen Brunson scored a game-high 45 points, which wasn’t enough to sink the Bucks at the Fiserv Forum without a more efficient game from his co-star.

    Brunson said Randle’s shooting struggles are “part of basketball” and appeared optimistic his All-Star teammate will return to form.

    “It happens,” he said. “This dude, he has a great mindset, a great work ethic. He comes in every day, does what he has to do, does his routine and all that stuff. The ball is not going through the hoop right now for him.

    “I tell him every day I’m with him: ‘We’re going to work through this, everything.’ When I have days I’m not making shots, he says the same to me. It’s just, it’s alright.

    “I mean, he’s missing shots, but we’re still in games. He’s still contributing in a big way. I’m not going to get into all that stuff, but his heart’s still there. He just has to get over this little hump.”

    Thibodeau said he’s concerned less about Randle’s shot quality and focused more on the quality of his decisions. Randle also finished with five assists to just one turnover and grabbed 12 rebounds on the night.

    “I want him to make good decisions,” Thibodeau said postgame. “I’m not going to measure every shot that he takes. Like he got into the lane, he created good separation and he got two really good looks, and that’s what he’s got to do. The game tells you what to do.”

    Thibodeau refuses to pin the blame on Randle, even though his shooting has been dreadful to start the season.

    “We all have to do more,” he said. “It’s not about individuals. It’s about the team. You don’t have to shoot well to play well. And that goes for everybody. As a team we’re not shooting well right now.”

    Randle, however, also broached the topic of spacing after his 3-of-15 shooting night in the Knicks’ Nov. 1 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

    Thibodeau said the court shrinks when shots aren’t falling.

    “Yeah, we missed wide open shots,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we get easy baskets and then we’ve got to move and get off the ball and move.”

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    Kristian Winfield

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  • Mike Lupica: Knicks have finally built a foundation, but when will they make next step towards NBA title?

    Mike Lupica: Knicks have finally built a foundation, but when will they make next step towards NBA title?

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    The Knicks have signed enough role players now, and have certainly set some kind of world’s record for signing ex-Villanova Wildcats. The Knicks found themselves a real and appealing star last season, if not a superstar, in Jalen Brunson. They even managed to win a playoff series, something they have now done exactly twice in this century, which means in the century when James L. Dolan has become the face of the executive suite at Madison Square Garden, and who knows more about facial recognition than Jimmy?

    The Knicks play hard for Tom Thibodeau. Twice in the last three seasons they’ve been in the 4-5 first round series in the Eastern Conference. But the question Knicks have to ask themselves as another Knicks season is about to begin is this:

    When is this enough for a fan base that has been waiting almost as long for a title as Jets fans have?

    Or maybe the real question to ask about the Knicks, under Dolan and quiet man Leon Rose, is this:

    Where are they going this season, north or south, and that doesn’t mean up Eighth Ave. or down Seventh?

    It is without question that the Knicks have established themselves as a nice, middle-class team under the leadership of Rose and Thibodeau and William Wesley, the great and mysterious Wizard of Oz at The Garden. And they did play the Heat, who went on to the NBA Finals, a very hard series in the second round last spring before final losing by four points in Game 6 in Miami.

    It is also an absolute fact that Rose has only been on the job as Dolan’s top basketball executive since March of 2020, which is not a lifetime in professional sports, but is still a long time.

    The Knicks seem, at least for the time being and perhaps for the foreseeable future, stuck in the middle of the Eastern Conference. They’re not where Phil (The Thrill) Jackson left them when he became Dolan’s basketball savior-in-chief, which means nowhere. They’re no longer one of the NBA’s lost franchises, which they were under Jackson and the way they once were under a basketball confidence man named Isiah Thomas.

    But where are the Knicks, exactly, going into a season when two Eastern Conference teams — Bucks, Celtics — are considered co-favorites to win an NBA title? Are they better than the Heat, or Cavs, or even the Nets? And by the way? Chris Young took over the Texas Rangers the same year that Leon Rose took over the running of the Knicks. You know where the Rangers are going? They’re going to a World Series that opens in their ballpark on Friday night.

    The Knicks haven’t played for the title since 1999. They are moving up on having gone as long without winning a title as the Rangers did before June of 1994, another time the Knicks made it to the Finals. We know that Knicks fans are forever. They continued to pack the Garden through all the losing, and all the times when Dolan raised ticket prices. But in a world where you are either moving towards the big trophy or away from it, who looks at this Knicks team, as young and athletic as it is, and sees it making even the conference finals this season? Or next?

    Who sees them going toe-to-toe with the Bucks of Giannis and Chris Middleton and Damian Lillard, or the Celtics of Jayson Taytum and Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis and now Jrue Holliday, who may help the Celtics more than Lillard is going to help the Bucks? It’s a lot of question marks, I know. So, too, are the 2023-24 Knicks, who could make a move up to No. 3 in their conference, or go the other way if anything ever happens to Brunson.

    Somehow there was this fever dream around here, because there always a fever dream like it with the Knicks, all the way back to LeBron, that Giannis was somehow going to end up at the Garden. He wasn’t, even before he signed that $186 million extension with the home team. Now the next longshot dream is Joel Embiid, who looks around at his immediate future in Philadelphia and wakes up one morning and decides he’s the one who wants to go play somewhere else, and the somewhere else is 33rd Street, New York City.

    Again: Brunson is terrific, and should have been an All-Star last season. Julius Randle, as head-scratchingly inconsistent as he can be, has already been an All-Star. RJ Barrett, a former No. 3 pick in the draft, is still a work in progress, though he still doesn’t turn 24 until next June. Josh Hart, ex-Villanova Wildcat, is a high-level role player, you bet, and Donte DeVincenzo, also ex-Villanova Wildcat, is going to be a crowd favorite at the Garden, almost without question.

    The Knicks still need a superstar. As good as Brunson is, you saw the difference between him and Jimmy Butler last spring when the money was on the table. The Knicks need someone like Embiid, or Luka Doncic or — don’t laugh — Ja Morant, the player the Grizzlies drafted right before the Knicks took Barrett in that same draft. The whole world knows how Morant looked like an idiot last season, as he seemed almost drunk with pride being an idiot waving around guns. Maybe he won’t be anything more than that. Or maybe he’s learned a lesson before blowing what should be a promising career, the way Latrell Sprewell once did at the Garden.

    The Knicks are an appealing team. They are. They’re going to be fun to watch. But, in the words of the great Al McGuire, when do they move uptown?

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    Mike Lupica

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  • Knicks open preseason with 114-107 victory over load-managed Celtics

    Knicks open preseason with 114-107 victory over load-managed Celtics

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    What can you glean from a preseason-opener against a team sitting each of its best six players?

    The Knicks kicked off their 2023-24 NBA preseason hosting a Boston Celtics team that rested Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Derrick White.

    They protected home court at Madison Square Garden with a 114-107 victory over the undermanned Celtics to jump out to a 1-0 start to exhibition play. The Knicks, however, will play the Celtics again on Oct. 17 in the first game of a preseason back-to-back — and then again for the regular-season opener at The Garden on Oct. 25.

    Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said ahead of tipoff the most important thing to take away from a relatively meaningless preseason game is taking advantage of the team’s first opportunity to compete against an opponent after spending a week scrimmaging in training camp in Charleston, S.C.

    “Just establish a baseline to see: ]It’s] the first opportunity to get out and compete as a team,” the Knicks’ coach said Monday evening. “So be a team. That’s always the first priority, and then, be ready to play. Establish who we are, style of play, that sort of thing.”

    Thibodeau carried over last season’s starters and went with Jalen Brunson, Quentin Grimes, R.J. Barrett, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson.

    Brunson played just six minutes and scored 10 points on four-of-five shooting from the field. Robinson and Grimes played the most of any starters, Randle logged just 13 minutes and Barrett played 16 minutes. Quickley scored a game-high 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field off the bench.

    “Just get your feet wet,” Thibodeau said was his minutes limit rationale ahead of tip-off on Monday. “[It’ll] sort of be a lot lighter, bigger rotation. We’ll see how that unfolds, but it’ll be much shorter than normal.”

    Josh Hart and Ryan Arcidiacono didn’t play as part of what Thibodeau called “maintenance stuff,” so the first players off the bench were Sixth Man of the Year runner-up Quickley and reserve big man Jericho Sims.

    “Just because there’s so many people that we have [to play],” Thibs explained when asked why Arcidacono would be held out of the opener, “so we’ll probably sit a couple guys out every game.”

    Sims’ emergence as one of the first two players off the bench comes after Thibodeau called him a standout player during Knicks training camp in Charleston, S.C.

    The decision to insert him into the lineup in place of Randle and alongside Robinson was surprising given Robinson and Sims only shared the floor for 11 total minutes all of last season.

    Thibodeau also played Sims alongside reserve big man Isaiah Hartenstein for long stretches of Monday’s preseason opener against the Celtics.

    The dual big man approach could be a response to the lack of a traditional four to backup Randle after the Knicks traded former first-round pick Obi Toppin to the Indiana Pacers for a pair of second-round draft picks over the summer. Hart is slotted to play minutes at the backup four spot and didn’t suit up on Monday.

    “The thing I like about Josh is you don’t lose anything because he can guard multiple positions. He can guard up, he can guard down and he’s a great rebounder. So we like that,” Thibodeau said on the final day of training camp in Charleston. “Jericho has really had a great camp. He’s the one guy, obviously coming off the surgery, he had a great summer the way he worked. He’s really done a good job for us.”

    FINAL ROSTER SPOT

    The Knicks have 14 of 15 guaranteed roster spots full, which means there’s a battle for the final spot on a playoff-bound basketball team underway.

    Arcidiacono, Charlie Brown Jr., Duane Washington Jr. and Jacob Toppin — Obi Toppin’s younger brother — are the players who have signed contracts with the Knicks that are in the mix for the final roster spot.

    Thibodeau also said the Knicks are monitoring other teams’ training camp battles in case a quality player on another team fails to earn a roster spot.

    “Not stuck on it,” he said when asked if the team is planning to fill the final roster spot. “We have a number of guys who are fighting it out for those spots at the end, and they’re all worthy. They’ve been here a long time. They’re working extremely hard, and they’ve done their jobs, so we’ll see how it unfolds.

    “We’ll be looking at other things as well, whether it’s people being released on guaranteed contracts because their team is over [the roster maximum]. So whatever we feel will help the team the most, that’s what we’re going to do.”

    Thibodeau also said during training camp he wanted to retain some of the end-of-the-roster players for the Westchester Knicks team.

    “It’s going to be a tough call. Like I said, those guys have been here for a good chunk of the summer and fall and worked extremely hard,” he said on Saturday in Charleston. “We’ll see how it unfolds. We still have a little more time to go. But they’ve been terrific. Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep some of those guys for our G League team. I like who they are, I like how they practice, I like how they compete.”

    FOURNIER’S ROLLER COASTER RIDE

    After declaring he could still help the Knicks this season following his benching most of last year, Evan Fournier checked into the game at the 2:57 mark of the first quarter on Monday.

    The Knicks were up 25-16 when he entered the game and gave up a 13-3 run to finish the quarter down, 29-28, entering the second period.

    The lineup of Fournier, Quickley, Sims, Hartenstein and Donte DiVincenzo was outscored by 10 in those minutes by the Celtics’ third unit.

    Fournier, however, caught fire after the slow start and finished the game with 11 points on three-of-seven shooting from downtown. He also converted on a pretty, one-handed catch-and-scoop layup on a dime from Hartenstein in the fourth quarter.

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    Kristian Winfield

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