After devouring film from the ugly defeat to the Celtics, Jalen Brunson believes the Knicks showed improvement — at least improvement from the low bar of the season opener — and saw evidence that his team can compete with the reigning champs.
“I learned if we fight, we have a chance,” Brunson said Monday. “I think last time it wasn’t even a game in Boston. So we got to give ourselves a chance. We got to be ready from the jump.”
The encouraging part of the film session, as cited by both Brunson and Tom Thibodeau, was the start of the third quarter, when the Knicks went with a small lineup and cut a 14-point deficit to three in a little over four minutes.
The hope was short-lived.
Boston responded with a 26-7 run — including two sets of three foul shots after Jayson Tatum and Derrick White were fouled attempting treys — and the Knicks were buried.
The lopsided contest, which followed a Celtics obliteration of the Knicks in October, was followed by concerns Thibodeau’s squad was too far under the upper crust to think about emerging out of the East.
As NBA analyst and former player Brian Scalabrine said in the aftermath, “If you’re the Knicks, it all comes crashing down. You are reminded once again that you are just not at the same level.”
But Brunson seemed to recognize more correctable mistakes than sweeping indictments.
“I saw us start off flat. And then I saw us cut a big deficit to three. And then as we were talking about (Monday), obviously, as a team — once they took that timeout and then we foul a 3-point shooter, they went on a (run),” the point guard said. “The way we fought in the middle of the game is the way we should play throughout the game. I’ve said this — no matter who you play, it’s to see where you’re at. But with them, it’s a different standard. They’re the champs, so we have a lot of room for improvement, obviously. And we just need to be focused on that.”
Assessing how they stack up against the Celtics is relevant not only because they were the previous opponent to Tuesday’s game in Indiana, but also because New York’s path to the conference finals likely goes through Boston.
The Knicks were demolished in both matchups this season against the division foe, but felt better about being within striking distance in the second half Saturday without their injured top defender, OG Anunoby.
“We cut it to three with six minutes left to go in the third quarter and we had a couple bad fouls that gifted them points,” Thibodeau said. “And that was a big hit. You got to play 48 minutes against them.”
The lineup that forged the failed comeback was among the smallest deployed this season by Thibodeau. In an effort to boost the offense, he replaced Precious Achiuwa with Miles McBride to start the second half.
It’s rare for Thibs to sacrifice size and rebounding, but the coach said he needed to find something more effective against the Celtics.
He settled on the fivesome of Brunson, McBride, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns. Thibodeau said he couldn’t commit to the lineup against the Pacers until learning the status of Anunoby, who isn’t returning until after the All-Star break, according to ESPN, but is listed as questionable for Tuesday with a sprained foot.
Achiuwa started in Anunonby’s three DNPs thus far.
“(The lineup with McBride) is more perimeter skill. (The one with Achiuwa) is more big — rebounding, defense. That sort of thing,” Thibodeau said. “We had gotten into such a big hole, we had to change what we were doing.
“Any time you do one thing, it’s going to make you vulnerable in another area. So basically we just have to play better. It wasn’t on one particular guy. We were looking for something that would give us energy, give us a spark, and that’s where we went.”
Regardless of the lineup, the Knicks face a different type of measuring stick against the Pacers, the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last season.
And as they look back at the Celtics blowout, the small window of third-quarter prosperity is enough to believe things can be better.
“We focus on bouncing back. We focus on that big-time,” Brunson said. “It’s not easy. But we can’t just dwell on what just happened. Obviously, we lost. We got our asses kicked. But how do we move forward from that? We can’t just sit there and feel sorry for ourselves.”
