Possibly they need it extra.
That was Knicks’ All-Star Julius Randle’s reply when requested why his staff has struggled to dominate the glass in opposition to a Miami Warmth staff that ranked towards the underside of the NBA within the class through the common season.
The Knicks completed third in regular-season rebounding charge this season and had been projected to lean on that power in opposition to a Warmth staff that completed the yr ranked twenty sixth on the glass.
In Video games 1 and a couple of in opposition to the Warmth, the Knicks gained the rebound margin, 98-73, and headed to Miami with the sequence tied at one sport apiece. But getting into Sport 5 at Madison Sq. Backyard on Wednesday, the Knicks had been outrebounded in every of their earlier two video games: They misplaced on the glass, 50-48, in Sport 3, then had been embarrassed in Sport 4, when the notoriously undersized Warmth outrebounded them by 9 in an eight-point victory that sunk the Knicks right into a 3-1 sequence gap.
“Possibly they need it extra, I don’t know,” Randle stated on the staff’s Tarrytown observe facility on Tuesday. “That’s been who we're all yr. We’ve gotta discover a technique to step up and make these performs if we wish to hold this season alive.”
Head coach Tom Thibodeau disagreed with Randle’s premise forward of tipoff in opposition to the Warmth on Wednesday. Thibodeau twice in the identical media availability chalked his staff’s shortcomings as much as it being “a hard-fought sequence.”
The coach talked about rebounding one in all a variety of areas his staff has come up quick.
“Wins are arduous to return by and often it’s the intangibles. First two video games, we rebounded the ball extraordinarily properly. The final two video games now we have not,” he stated. “So if you take a look at what occurs, and what separates you: a variety of instances it’s hustle play, turnover, offensive rebound.”
“Nah,” Thibodeau continued when requested if he agreed with Randle that the Warmth needed it extra this sequence. “Like I stated, it’s a hard-fought sequence. It’s not gonna be simple to get buckets. We really, offensively, I believed we performed properly. We shot 49 %. However the factor that damage us was the rebounding, So we all know we’ve gotta do a significantly better job at that. That’s been one in all our strengths all yr.”
THUMBS UP FOR GRIMES
Thibodeau says he likes what second-year wing Quentin Grimes brings to the beginning lineup.
Thibs began Grimes over veteran wing Josh Hart in Sport 4′s loss to the Warmth. Grimes performed 42 minutes and hit three threes on the evening, injecting some defensive toughness and floor-spacing the Knicks desperately wanted.
“We may keep it up,” Thibodeau stated of the concept of Grimes beginning for Sport 5. “We may change it. Nevertheless it was good.”
()