Kristaps: Effort not problem
ADAY after Tim Hardaway Jr. said the Knicks lost to the Blazers because of a lack of effort, Kristaps Porzingis disagreed and implied that was just another unproductive excuse.
“I don’t think that’s the problem,” Porzingis said. “I think it’s us. What drains our energy is when we don’t play disciplined or don’t play the right way. That drains our energy. Then it’s like, ‘Oh, he did the wrong thing, that guy, the coach, whatever.’ We try to find excuses in those moments and our energy comes down. The effort is there.”
In the locker room following the home defeat, Hardaway Jr. said, “There’s no math or science problem to figure out why we lost the game. It was effort.”
Porzingis felt something different.
“Maybe that’s how it looked,” he said. “Maybe we didn’t (give effort) at some moments. But as I said, I didn’t feel that way.”
CENTER OF ATTENTION
After openly encouraging a teammate to fight in Monday’s game, Enes Kanter said he expects to hear from the NBA. Ironically, the 25-year-old could still get fined even without a fight.
“They said they’re probably going to call,” Kanter said.
Kanter, who missed three consecutive games because of back pain, is “probable” for tonight’s game against the Heat, but the story is no longer about when Kanter will return. It's about how a fragile construct completely fell apart without him.
Nobody would confuse Kanter with Porzingis, but his absence has felt equal in impact. The Knicks stunk in the three games without the center. It exposed a potential for implosion if the Knicks puzzle is not whole.
“Last night one of my teammates told me, ‘You better get healthy soon, we need you bad out there,’ ” Kanter said. “It broke my heart so bad. I cannot describe with words. It just made me feel terrible.”
Center was supposed to be the Knicks’ deepest position. But Willy Hernangomez has regressed from last season, Kyle O'Quinn is best suited for the second unit and Joakim Noah has played a total of two minutes in the last 10 months.
It underscored the importance of Kanter.