Possibly they want it further.
That was Knicks’ All-Star Julius Randle’s reply when requested why his workers has struggled to dominate the glass in opposition to a Miami Warmth workers that ranked in direction of the underside of the NBA throughout the class all through the widespread season.
The Knicks accomplished third in regular-season rebounding cost this season and have been projected to lean on that power in opposition to a Warmth workers that accomplished the yr ranked twenty sixth on the glass.
In Video games 1 and a few in opposition to the Warmth, the Knicks gained the rebound margin, 98-73, and headed to Miami with the gathering tied at one sport apiece. But moving into Recreation 5 at Madison Sq. Backyard on Wednesday, the Knicks had been outrebounded in each of their earlier two video video games: They misplaced on the glass, 50-48, in Recreation 3, then have been embarrassed in Recreation 4, when the notoriously undersized Warmth outrebounded them by 9 in an eight-point victory that sunk the Knicks proper right into a 3-1 assortment hole.
“Possibly they need it extra, I don’t know,” Randle acknowledged on the workers’s Tarrytown observe facility on Tuesday. “That’s been who we’re all 12 months. We’ve gotta discover a method to step up and make these performs if we need to maintain this season alive.”
Head coach Tom Thibodeau disagreed with Randle’s premise ahead of tipoff in opposition to the Warmth on Wednesday. Thibodeau twice within the equivalent media availability chalked his workers’s shortcomings as a lot because it being “a hard-fought sequence.”
The coach talked about rebounding one amongst quite a lot of areas his workers has come up fast.
“Wins are onerous to return by and often it’s the intangibles. First two video games, we rebounded the ball extraordinarily effectively. The final two video games we’ve not,” he acknowledged. “So whenever you take a look at what occurs, and what separates you: loads of occasions it’s hustle play, turnover, offensive rebound.”
“Nah,” Thibodeau continued when requested if he agreed with Randle that the Warmth wished it further this assortment. “Like I mentioned, it’s a hard-fought sequence. It’s not gonna be simple to get buckets. We truly, offensively, I assumed we performed effectively. We shot 49 %. However the factor that damage us was the rebounding, So we all know we’ve gotta do a a lot better job at that. That’s been one in all our strengths all 12 months.”
THUMBS UP FOR GRIMES
Thibodeau says he likes what second-year wing Quentin Grimes brings to the start lineup.
Thibs started Grimes over veteran wing Josh Hart in Recreation 4′s loss to the Warmth. Grimes carried out 42 minutes and hit three threes on the night, injecting some defensive toughness and floor-spacing the Knicks desperately needed.
“We might keep it up,” Thibodeau acknowledged of the idea of Grimes starting for Recreation 5. “We might change it. But it surely was good.”
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