Tuesday night in San Antonio provided an all-too-familiar feeling for the Knicks and their fan base.
On the heels of a three-game winning streak, New York simply didn’t show up in The Lone Star State, getting drubbed 119-93, sparked by a third quarter in which it simply vanished into thin air. The Knicks were outscored 36-21 in those 12 minutes.
It was a performance reminiscent of the majority of Knicks teams that have been mired in dysfunction over the last two decades; where the philosophy of “burn the tape and move on,” from the litany of inadequate head coaches would have once again reigned supreme.
But these Knicks — as many quietly hope — are different and their coach portrays the kind of demeanor that offers the promise of performances such as Tuesday night’s being a fluke rather than the regular.
“You get what you deserve,” Thibodeau said as he looked down in disgust following the loss in San Antonio. “We didn’t play our best and when you’re on the road you’ve got to play well for 48 minutes. We didn’t do that.
“It’s a prideful group. Obviously, we’re disappointed with the way we played. We’ll bounce back… make some corrections. We know how important this next game is. We’ll be ready to play.”
That next game comes Thursday night at Madison Square Garden against the Detroit Pistons (7:30 p.m. ET), who the Knicks just defeated on the road Sunday night to ensure the team would be over .500 (18-17) in the month of March for the first time in eight years.
They’ll be hoping that Julius Randle can return to his leading form in the final game before he makes his first-ever All-Star Game appearance on Sunday in Atlanta. Randle was held to just 14 points on 6-of-16 shooting in the loss.
“It’s nothing they did,” Randle said. “I got to my spots. Missed shots. That was really it.”
“The second half was awful. This is probably the first kind of [bad game] I’ve had this year, honestly. Just have to get traction and start moving in another direction.”
