The Knicks have plenty to splatter the give-up teams. But Sunday, the absences they counteracted for so long became suddenly tangible problems.
Honestly, the most notable thing Tom Thibodeau said during his postgame press gathering Sunday night wasn’t the four-word mantra he repeated a total of five times, when he was asked his thoughts about whether Jalen Brunson had been fouled on a late-game drive.
Brunson had made a layup but sure looked like he was hip-checked by Oklahoma City’s Luguentz Dort on the play, which means that, theoretically, the back-breaking turnaround jumper the Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made a few moments later should only have sent the game to overtime, rather than give OKC a 113-112 win.
“Write what you see,” Thibodeau said, and then repeated it again, and again, and again.
And again.
And in truth: That’s all the matter deserved. Maybe other members of the NBA elite get that call. Maybe Brunson himself gets that call in the season’s first three months, before the NBA ordered its referees to raise the standard of a foul.
But it was something else Thibodeau mentioned, off-handedly, almost parenthetically, that was the most relevant thing about this playoff-worthy night at Madison Square Garden. He was answering a question specifically about the Knicks’ bench and their troubling habit of surrendering leads.
And then he dropped this in there:
“We have three starters out right now.”
And, no, that doesn’t exactly count as a news bulletin. The Knicks have been without their entire starting front court since Jan. 27, when Julius Randle separated his shoulder.
