D-MANDING MORE!
SAN FRANCISCO — Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek and associate coach Kurt Rambis hopped from player to player Monday after practice, sitting with many of them, looking at video on a laptop one day after the Lakers feasted on the Knicks defense.
The attention to detail was at its highest during a two-plus-hour practice at the Olympic Club. If the depleted, rebuilding Lakers could score 127 points on the Knicks, imagine what the defending NBA champion Warriors might do Tuesday at Oracle Arena if things don’t change.
Hornacek said despite it being past the season’s midpoint, Sunday’s defensive fiasco stemmed from players forgetting their defensive rotations. It was an eye-opener in a season in which the Knicks are trying to establish a defen- sive identity, and it got punctured by young Lakers Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle and Kyle Kuzma. It wasn’t the finest hour for the Knicks’ two young stars, Kristaps Porzingis or Frank Ntilikina.
“Back to the fundamentals from the beginning of the year,’’ Hornacek said. “We had some slippage in how we covered things. To our guys’ credit, in a way, [there were] times we’re helping out, but helping out on the wrong guy. We went over all the rotations and went at it hard today. We’re trying to get it back in their heads how to do it every time.’’
The Knicks coaches were certainly on overdrive. After the loss Sunday, Tim Hardaway Jr. said the Lakers were “wellcoached’’ for the game.
There is nothing certain about Hornacek’s future for next season and a regression on defense — general manager Scott Perry’s obsession — won’t bode well. Team president Steve Mills and Perry have been omnipresent during this seven-game road trip. They viewed Monday’s practice but neither have spoken to the media recently, Perry on Dec. 9 and Mills before the fourth game of the season on Oct. 9.
Explaining the sit-downs with the players, Hornacek said, “We wanted to take the time to go over things after practice and show them — we can talk about it and show them as a team. But sometimes they open up more — what’s your thought on this or that? When you sit with them individually.”
While Enes Kanter and Hardaway felt the Lakers outworked the Knicks, Hornacek didn’t. He said he felt tactically the Knicks were messing up their rotations, leading the coaches to go over defensive sets with a fine-tooth comb Monday.
“That’s what we’re talking about, try-
ing to be consistent,’’ Hornacek said. “We have a way of tracking things. We want to get on the upward trend and we’ve been hovering around the same thing. That’s the focus and determination to do it right all the time. Sometimes when you’re playing a game, it’s a natural reaction, ‘Hey, someone drove by my teammate, I got to go.’ But then you get broken down.
“When you see the top teams do it, they do it the same way every time. That’s what we’re trying to get to. We can’t do it 80 percent of the time. We got to do it 95 percent of the time. I don’t know how long that will take. We’ll keep going over and over it until we get there.’’
The Knicks’ first game against the Warriors does not come at a fortuitous time, coming off the inexplicable Lakers’ blowout that dropped the Knicks to 21-26 and 1-3 on the trip. The Warriors, meanwhile, are emerging from a rocky loss in Houston on Saturday and are seething over a quote from Rockets center Clint Capela, who boasted “We are better than them.’’
The Warriors (37-10) could well try to make the Knicks their punching bag. On Monday, an angry Kevin Durant snapped at the Rockets’ boast: “You hear it from guys like Capela. Usually he’s catching the ball and laying it up from CP [Chris Paul] or James Harden. His job is not as hard. When your job is that hard, you know you can’t just come out there and say s--t like that.’’
Hornacek knows the Warriors could look to prove a point.
“They’re a good team and can score a lot of points,’’ Hornacek said. “[Tuesday] we’ll go over the game plan and hopefully slow them down a bit. Great teams come off losses with a different mindset. Guys are going to have to be ready.’’