Playoff hopefuls preparing for ‘very important game’
NEW YORK — James Dolan’s declaration of playoff expectations lends more importance to a Knicks postseason push.
If an owner sets a public goal, there’s a burden internally to meet it — regardless of Tom Thibodeau’s claims about feeling unpressured.
Which brings us to Thursday’s game against the Heat.
Although it’s still too early to get crazy about playoff seedings, a matchup between No. 7 in the conference (the Knicks) and No. 6 (the Heat) carries a little more significance because of the new playoff format.
Only the sixth seed gets an automatic playoff berth. The seventh seed has to win a play-in game.
The Knicks (27-25), riding a losing streak after Tuesday’s overtime defeat to the Lakers, are two games behind the Heat (29-23). It was a disheartening start to the season for Miami, but Pat Riley’s franchise is surging behind All-star candidates Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
Since the 2018-19 season, the Knicks are 2-9 against the Heat.
“Very important [game],” Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson said. “Got to find a way to just get over the hump.”
“Obviously they have great personnel, a culture that they talk about all the time. So they’re going to come in, they’re going to play hard. We’ve got to match their energy and pick it up on the defensive end. Offensively we’re scoring a lot of points. Defensively is where we’ve got to pick it up.”
Unluckily for the Knicks, the East is stacked this season through the top six, with Thibodeau’s squad right now outside the bubble. They need to break in guarantee meeting Dolan’s goal.
RJ Barrett, typically eager and engaging with the media, lost his desire to talk after getting benched for the final 12 minutes of Tuesday’s loss to the
Barrett has no words:
Lakers, including the entirety of overtime.
“I have nothing to say,” the 22-year-old said as he walked out of the locker room.
Minutes earlier, Barrett told teammate Cam Reddish to reaffirm out loud that it wasn’t a good idea for him to speak. The insinuation from Barrett was that he’d say something regrettable, or controversial.
So it’s safe to assume Barrett was upset about his surprising benching during a marquee game on national television. A year prior, he played 50 minutes with 36 points in an overtime loss to the Lakers. On Tuesday? Twenty-seven minutes with 13 points.
Late Tuesday: Lebron James moved within 89 points of breaking the NBA’S career scoring record and climbed into fourth place on the assists list, finishing with a triple-double in his return to Madison Square Garden as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the New York Knicks 129-123 on Tuesday night.
James had 28 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds, with the points giving him 38,299 for his career. Kareem Abdul-jabbar is the leader with 38,387.
But James’ game has always been about more than scoring, as he proved again Tuesday. He fed Dennis Schroder for a 3-pointer that snapped a 118-all tie with 3:13 remaining, grabbed his 10th rebound later in the extra period and then powered to the basket for a 127-121 lead with 19 seconds to go.
He had earlier moved ahead of Mark Jackson and then Steve Nash into fourth place on the assists list during his first game at Madison Square Garden in three years.
Anthony Davis added 27 points and nine rebounds for the Lakers, who had dropped two straight to open their trip. Both James and Davis had sat out their loss Monday in Brooklyn.
Jalen Brunson scored 37 points and Julius Randle had 23 points and 12 rebounds for the Knicks.