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Of all the labels a fan can attach to a professional sports team, “soft” is among the most hurtful. Right now, the Knicks are soft, which is something you are not allowed to be in New York.
The Nuggets arrived at the Garden as losers of seven of their last eight, as a sub-.500 team that was trying and failing to weather the long-term absences of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Denver still had the reigning league MVP, Nikola Jokic, but this was an opponent tailor-made for a market correction at the Garden, where the Knicks had somehow lost seven of 12 games.
Instead, the Nuggets turned a spotlight on the Knicks’ biggest problem: their lack of consistent competitive heart.
They are not nearly as hungry as they were last year, when they brought the city game back from the dead. It’s not often a team suffers a next-season hangover after a first-round playoff exit, but the Knicks were so rightfully celebrated for bringing a competent and determined brand of ball back to the Garden after a biblical drought, it’s understandable why they might enter Year 2 of Tom Thibodeau’s restoration program feeling too good about themselves.
But that doesn’t make it any more forgivable. The Knicks offered so little resistance on their home floor Saturday that they allowed the Nuggets to take a 30-point lead. Denver didn’t even bother to play Jokic a single second in the fourth quarter, because the superstar center had already accounted for 32 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists in 27 minutes of work that was a clinic in the art of playing world-class basketball without world-class speed or hops.
Who cares that Jokic’s physique is reminiscent of that famous shirtless photo of Tom Brady at the pre-draft combine? The guy is a master craftsman who made the Knicks look silly while sinking 14 of his 19 shots before buttering his popcorn, kicking up his feet and watching the final 12 minutes of a blowout that was far uglier than the 113-99 final suggested.
The truth is, Jokic’s brilliance wasn’t the primary issue with the home team.
Last year’s Knicks embodied the Thibodeau Way and treated every possession as a do-or-die statement on their character. This year’s Knicks treat intensity and hustle as part-time options.
“We’ve got to fix the effort part,” Thibodeau said, “and then we’ve got to go from there.”
Thibodeau, the ultimate effort coach, is still talking about his team’s desire, or lack thereof, 23 games into the season. His Knicks are 11-12, 5-8 at home and losers of three straight as they head on a three-game road trip (San Antonio, Indiana, Toronto) before returning to the Garden to face the defending champion Bucks and the league-best Warriors.
If the Knicks don’t start competing with more fire, they won’t be making the playoffs. In fact, if the season ended today, they wouldn’t even qualify for the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. The reason is as clear as the boos the Knicks heard from the Garden crowd.
“We’ve just got to fight,” RJ Barrett said. “At the end of the day all the X’s and O’s, that doesn’t matter. We’ve got to play defense and we’ve got to fight.”
Barrett also said, “We’ve just got to care,” before walking it back. Julius Randle conceded that the Knicks don’t have the offensive star power of the Nets and other contenders, and that they can only beat more talented opponents on the defensive end.
“In order to win games,” Randle said, “we’ve got to play really hard, extremely hard. … Who we are as a team, how we built this team and this culture, is just fighting defensively, the togetherness, just the effort and the hustle plays.
“I feel like that’s what the city of New York loves, that’s what the fans love, when they know we’re out there giving it our all. I think sometimes we’re just a little bit too lax, or we might think the little details don’t matter sometimes.”
Knicks fans don’t want to boo this team, not after receiving that special gift from last year’s Knicks. But they had no choice Saturday. They were merely asking their young players to compete as hard as Denver’s 35-year-old Jeff Green did when he chased down Immanuel Quickley near the end of the third quarter and blocked a layup attempt with his elbow.
On top of everything else, the Knicks surrendered a career-high 21 points to Zeke Nnaji, who was averaging 6.8 this year. When it was all over, Thibodeau arrived more-than-fashionably late to his postgame press conference, undoubtedly after an extended conversation with his team. The coach warned “there may be more changes coming.” No, he can’t banish Kemba Walker all over again.
“Right now,” Thibodeau said, “we’re out of sorts.”
Right now, the Knicks are the very thing a Thibodeau team is never, ever supposed to be — soft.
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