Getty Tom Thibodeau the head coach of the New York Knicks against the Indiana Pacers.
All was well during the initial two preseason contests for the New York Knicks, as the club was seemingly firing on all cylinders whilst outscoring their opponents 248 to 210 during this stretch.
Then, with their October 12 outing on the road against the Pacers, the team’s undefeated streak came to its bitter end.
New York met its demise thanks to a ferocious fourth-quarter comeback by Indiana, led by rookie guard Andrew Nembhard and his 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the quarter (finished with 15 points on the night), which, ultimately, led to a 32-21 point differential in the period and a loss to the tune of 109-100.
During the post-game press conference, head coach Tom Thibodeau discussed what he believes led to New York’s first loss of the preseason, however, he noted that he would not stoop to the levels of the media when it comes to singling out any one person in particular.
“Obviously the bench could have played better. I don’t ever put it on one person,” Thibodeau said to reporters. “I know you guys like to ‘oh, it’s this guy’ or ‘it’s that guy’ — it’s not that, the group has to function well together. So that’s the bottom line.”
Luckily for the team, this was still just a mere preseason game and, in turn, the loss will not impact the Knicks’ regular season record. However, Thibodeau’s sentiment in the presser was absolutely right, for it was the bench unit as a whole who dropped a major dud in their third outing together.
Knicks Bench Blew the Game
Heading into halftime, with New York’s starters logging the majority of the minutes, the Knicks sported a 54-48 lead over their conference rivals.
The second half, however, proved to be a whole other ball game, as all but one starter (RJ Barrett) saw less than double-digit minutes, with guys like Immanuel Quickley, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Obi Toppin receiving the majority of the work.
As a result, from the mid-way mark on the Pacers outscored the Knicks 61-46, including an absolute demolition of the club in the fourth where they outscored them by 11 points (32-21) while holding New York to just 36% shooting from the floor and a putrid 15.4% shooting from distance.
Of their reserves, Quickley led the way in scoring, dropping 12 points total in his 24 minutes of action.
Unfortunately, his shooting efficiency was truly abysmal, as he converted on just 22.2% of his attempts from the floor and 28.6% of his attempts from deep, though this was par for the course as the team as a whole shot just 37.1% from the field and 26.8% from deep.
The team’s bench unit combined for a mediocre 39 total points while shooting an abysmal 31.1%, and none came away registering a positive plus-minus rating (Jericho Sims, who saw less than three minutes of playing time, boasted the best mark of the bunch at -5).
Randle, Barrett Give Praise to Knicks Guard
In an October 12 piece by SNY, Knicks beat writer Ian Begley wrote of recent comments made by Julius Randle, as the big man couldn’t help but praise his new teammate Jalen Brunson, both as a player and, more specifically, as a person.
“He’s a really good player, obviously. But he’s a good person, a good human being at the core of him,” Randle said via Ian Begley of SNY. “I said it day one, he’s going to be great for our team but he’s going to be even better for our locker room.”
Begley noted that Randle was not the only one to discuss Brunson’s positive contributions to New York, as he continued to push the notion that the new guard has already managed to prove his worth both as a player and a leader on the team.
“He’s definitely a leader,” Barrett said via Begley. “…There’s been times (when) he comes over to me and we have good interaction. We have good communication between him and I. I think that’s starting to become contagious. Just throughout the team. So it’s been really good.”
Though the trio has only played in three preseason games together, it’s apparent that they seem to fit well alongside one another, as the Knicks have gone 2-1 during this span while Brunson, Barrett, and Randle have managed to combine for per-game averages of 49.0 points, 11.0 assists, and 14.3 rebounds.