ATLANTA — Defense with out Mitchell Robinson didn’t begin so effectively for the Knicks. In truth, it was a catastrophe.
With Robinson lacking his first recreation of a number of to get better from a surgically-repaired thumb, Tom Thibodeau’s squad discovered itself taking the ball out of its personal web.
Over and over once more.
The Hawks feasted within the pick-and-roll and contained in the paint, using huge nights from Dejounte Murray and Trae Young in a 139-124 victory Friday evening. The postgame locker interviews produced a consensus that Robinson was missed.
“It’s hard to cover for so much. You kinda forget when he’s out there how much he’s covering,” Julius Randle mentioned. “He covers a lot and obviously we would love to have him, but it’s gonna be a collective effort trying to make up for what he brings.”
“Mitch kind of cleans out everything,” added RJ Barrett.
The Knicks (25-22), who’ve misplaced three straight, stored it shut till the fourth quarter largely due to their sizzling capturing and Julius Randle (32 factors total). But then their offense predictably fell again all the way down to earth, at the least for simply lengthy sufficient for the Hawks (24-22) to create separation for a fourth-quarter cruise to their fifth straight victory.
How dangerous was the Knicks’ protection? They shot 59% and nonetheless misplaced by 15 factors.
“You give up 139, and credit to them, they’re playing great basketball right now, but we’re not gonna be able to win a game like that,” Tom Thibodeau mentioned. “And so, I liked our offense a lot, shoot 59% and score 124. But right from the start, there was no defensive urgency or mindset from the start of the game.”
In Robinson’s absence, Thibodeau began Jericho Sims as a substitute of Isaiah Hartenstein “to try to keep some rhythm with the second unit.”
It was the third begin of the season for Sims, a 2021 second-round decide, who has floated out and in of the rotation this season. Sims, like Robinson, is a high-flying rim protector. He truly performed effectively in 28 minutes, particularly within the third quarter. But the sport was misplaced firstly of the fourth when Thibodeau went small with Randle and Obi Toppin within the frontcourt.
In lower than two minutes of Toppin and Randle sharing the court docket, a single-digit deficit bulged to fifteen.
“We broke the lineup. And they got on a run right there,” Thibodeau mentioned, “and then we couldn’t stop the bleeding there.”
The Hawks have flirted with catastrophe this season, with coach Nate McMillan rumored to be considering retirement halfway via the season. But in addition they entered Friday evening enjoying rejuvenated basketball with a completely wholesome roster. Then they scored 62 factors within the paint and grabbed 14 offensive rebounds, transferring inside a ½ recreation of the Knicks for seventh within the Eastern Conference.
It left Thibodeau complaining about effort for a second straight recreation.
“I think right now, we’re slow reacting. We gotta get out of that,” the coach mentioned. “We gotta get that fight back to us, that urgency back to us. And then you can’t wait you have to establish that right from the start of the game. So the Washington game was similar. We didn’t impose our will at all. So sometimes, people can make shots. And if they’re challenged, you live with that. We’re capable of doing a lot better than we’re doing right now.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com