There are hardly ever good moments for a Western Conference highway journey. But now looks as if it couldn’t be worse timing for Tom Thibodeau.
The embattled coach, whose protection Sunday allowed extra factors in regulation than any Knicks staff because the Jimmy Carter administration, will discover it more durable to chill off his sizzling seat with 5 daunting highway video games in seven days.
The first matchup Tuesday in Utah was speculated to be the best of the journey, however the Jazz (10-5) has bucked expectations and is undefeated at house with an help from excessive altitude circumstances.
The Knicks (6-7) left a day early to get their lungs acclimated to the thinner oxygen in Salt Lake City, which sits about 4,300 toes above sea degree. The early journey served a twin goal since acclimatization might also assist for Wednesday’s sport in Denver, the best altitude metropolis within the NBA.
But better-adjusted lungs doesn’t negate the formidable problem. Evan Fournier, who performed two seasons for the Nuggets, known as New York’s upcoming two video games, “the toughest back-to-back in the league.”
The Nuggets (9-4) are additionally undefeated at house.
“It’s the toughest because of the altitude and the games are back-to-back. When we land [in Denver], it’s like an hour drive [to the hotel]. Then you have the altitude. It’s extremely hard to play there in back-to-backs,” Fournier mentioned. “My first year, my rookie year with the Nuggets [in 2012-13], we had the best record in the league at home. We won 39 games and we lost two that year, and we would just look at teams coming in on back to backs like, ‘They’re tired. We got this.’”
Not coincidentally, the Knicks haven’t received in Denver since 2006, when Jamal Crawford scored 35 factors and ‘SexyBack’ by Justin Timberlake topped the Billboard charts.
After the Nuggets, the Knicks face the final two Western Conference champs — the Warriors and Suns — earlier than ending their journey in opposition to an OKC Thunder squad that dropped 145 factors at MSG on Sunday.
The backdrop is Thibodeau, the NBA’s Coach of the Year in 2021, going through elevated scrutiny for the staff’s shoddy protection and absent id. It’s on the heels of final season’s disappointing fall to the draft lottery. According to a league supply, staff president Leon Rose was given permission final season by proprietor James Dolan to fireside the coach.
Rose resisted however Thibodeau has lengthy had detractors within the entrance workplace. It’s unclear the place Rose stands on his coach with the Knicks now stumbling, although not precisely falling, out of the gate. Perhaps the five-game highway journey will reply that query.
“I know if we’re relying on trying to outscore people that’s not going to work,” Thibodeau mentioned after Sunday’s defeat to the Thunder. “Our margin of error is small, we have to play with great intensity on every possession. When we do that we’re very successful. We can’t get wrapped up in a free-flowing game where we’re not containing the ball or we’re not challenging shots.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com