ART OF GOLD
Knicks prep for next up-close encounter with versatile champs
It is the way they share the ball. Or the way they defend. Or the way they shoot. Or their depth, experience, quickness, versatility, unselfishness. You could use up all your cloud storage listing attributes that make the world-champion Warriors great. Now the Knicks get another eyeful Monday at the Garden. “Obviously, they’re a great team,” Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said with classic understatement Sunday after practice in Tarrytown. “What makes them hard to guard is they know each other well enough and they all know how to play the game well enough that no matter what you do, they have an adjustment.”
Doing it with four All-Stars — two of them league MVPs in Steph Curry and Kevin Durant — helps. Then there are Draymond Green, the reigning defensive player of the year, and Klay Thompson, one of the best two-way players on the planet.
“LeBron [James] has a bad night, Cleveland is screwed. Durant has a bad night, it’s, ‘ OK, let the other guys loose,’ ” one scout said describing the 46-14 Warriors.
“We know what type of problems Golden State brings, the pace that they play at. We’ve got to match that from the get-go,” said Trey Burke, coming off back-to-back 26-point games off the bench as part of the Knicks’ youth movement. “We’re all pros. I believe we can win the game [Monday]. We’ve just got to match their intensity.”
Matching intensity is one thing. But beating the Warriors is, you know, tough. One Knick who knows that better than most is center Enes Kanter, part of the 2016 Thunder team that had the Warriors in a 3-1 playoff vise and let them escape. The Warriors eventually blew a 3-1 lead against James and the Cavaliers in the 2016 Finals before bouncing back to claim their second title in three years last season. Durant was part of the 2016 Thunder before joining the Warriors.
“You don’t have to bring it up, man,” Kanter said.
What? The 2016 Western Conference final, in which the Thunder had the Warriors 3-1?
“It was a tough series. We could have won a championship that year. Now we move forward, learn from it and never forget it’s a seven-game series. Just never relax,” said Kanter, who professed no ill will toward Durant. “He gave me a fist bump last game. I gave him a fist bump. I played a pickup game with him last summer. I got no problem with him outside of the court. He’s a good dude. On the court, it’s not just him. I try to get in everybody’s head.
“It’s not against them. It’s against any team. I play for the Knicks, so whoever I go against, I don’t like them. But Golden State, a little bit more … because of the history we have.”
Because of that whole 3-1 thing in the 2016 Western final? Oh, wait. We’re not supposed to bring that up.
The Warriors enter as the No. 1 scoring, shooting, 3-point-shooting, assistmaking, shot-blocking team on the planet. They do it conventionally. They do it the unorthodox way. With the Jazz, Hornacek faced Michael Jordan’s Bulls in the Finals twice — teams that also featured Golden State coach Steve Kerr — and he admitted he can’t recall another outfit like the Warriors, who have beaten the Knicks six straight.
“Back then, every team had at least one center. They go with Draymond at the 5, all of a sudden it’s like four wing guys and a guard,” Hornacek said. “The advantage they have is Draymond can play defense and switch off on point guards. Most teams’ 5s have a hard time when they try to get switched off on a 1.
“Jordan’s teams, they still had a center, but they switched all their 1, 2, 3 guys with Jordan and [Scottie] Pippen and Ron Harper. All had [6-foot-7] length … and it made it very difficult. You had to really be on point with what you were doing to beat those switches. So if a team is good at switching, it makes it tough on teams, and [the Warriors] are probably one of the best.”
And not just in switching.