Maybe they need it extra.
That was Knicks’ All-Star Julius Randle’s reply when requested why his staff has struggled to dominate the glass in opposition to a Miami Heat staff that ranked towards the underside of the NBA within the class throughout the common season.
The Knicks completed third in regular-season rebounding charge this season and have been projected to lean on that energy in opposition to a Heat staff that completed the yr ranked twenty sixth on the glass.
In Games 1 and a couple of in opposition to the Heat, the Knicks gained the rebound margin, 98-73, and headed to Miami with the collection tied at one sport apiece. Yet getting into Game 5 at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, the Knicks had been outrebounded in every of their earlier two video games: They misplaced on the glass, 50-48, in Game 3, then have been embarrassed in Game 4, when the notoriously undersized Heat outrebounded them by 9 in an eight-point victory that sunk the Knicks right into a 3-1 collection gap.
“Maybe they want it more, I don’t know,” Randle stated on the staff’s Tarrytown follow facility on Tuesday. “That’s been who we are all year. We’ve gotta find a way to step up and make those plays if we want to keep this season alive.”
Head coach Tom Thibodeau disagreed with Randle’s premise forward of tipoff in opposition to the Heat on Wednesday. Thibodeau twice in the identical media availability chalked his staff’s shortcomings as much as it being “a hard-fought series.”
The coach talked about rebounding one in all a variety of areas his staff has come up quick.
“Wins are hard to come by and usually it’s the intangibles. First two games, we rebounded the ball extremely well. The last two games we have not,” he stated. “So when you look at what happens, and what separates you: a lot of times it’s hustle play, turnover, offensive rebound.”
“Nah,” Thibodeau continued when requested if he agreed with Randle that the Heat wished it extra this collection. “Like I said, it’s a hard-fought series. It’s not gonna be easy to get buckets. We actually, offensively, I thought we played well. We shot 49 percent. But the thing that hurt us was the rebounding, So we know we’ve gotta do a much better job at that. That’s been one of our strengths all year.”
THUMBS UP FOR GRIMES
Thibodeau says he likes what second-year wing Quentin Grimes brings to the beginning lineup.
Thibs began Grimes over veteran wing Josh Hart in Game 4′s loss to the Heat. Grimes performed 42 minutes and hit three threes on the evening, injecting some defensive toughness and floor-spacing the Knicks desperately wanted.
“We could stick with it,” Thibodeau stated of the concept of Grimes beginning for Game 5. “We could change it. But it was good.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com