The Knicks finished up a second consecutive 50-win season before taking a series lead in their first-round battle with the pesky Pistons, inching closer to a third straight trip to the conference semifinals.
Despite the continued ascent towards heights unseen at MSG in over a quarter century, much of the talk surrounding the Knickerbockers was centered around Tom Thibodeau, and if he was the right coach to continue leading the team.
Weeks later, Thibodeau is calmly dunking on those doubts and criticisms as his impact on the Knicks’ 3-1 series lead over the Celtics is impossible to ignore.
After keeping his group composed to pull off consecutive 20-point comebacks in games one and two, Thibodeau saw his troops bounce back in game four after a putrid showing in game three on Saturday afternoon. Even as Boston’s sharpshooters came out scorching hot in game four, Thibodeau used impeccably-timed timeouts to stop the bleeding and let his players regroup, something that was prevalent in the first quarter while the Celtics, mainly Derrick White, were shooting the lights out from downtown. Fast forward to the third quarter, when an errant Karl-Anthony Towns pass led to another White three, and Thibodeau wasted no time calling timeout to regroup, and the Knicks responded with 21 straight minutes of the team’s best basketball that it has shown all season.
With Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns in foul trouble, Thibodeau deployed a lineup with Mitchell Robinson and Miles McBride in crunch time during the fourth quarter, and that group outscored Boston by eight points during that crucial stretch, spanning much of the final period when the game, and potentially the series, was on the line (credit to SNY’s Ian Begley for pointing this out). Why was Robinson able to be on the floor down the stretch? That had as much to do with Thibodeau as it did Robinson, as the head coach kept his backup center off the floor when Boston was in the penalty, ensuring that Robinson’s free throw warts would not be a factor in game four.
Thibodeau’s strategy to negate the “Hack-a-Mitch” strategy was rightfully praised by Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who was forced to watch Robinson again wreak havoc on the glass and continue to be one of the more impactful players in this series. Thibodeau’s adjustment after the first three games was front and center in that regard.
Then there’s the minutes discourse, which has followed Thibodeau around for his entire coaching career. It was in the spotlight after a wave of injuries wrecked New York’s playoff run last year (even though many of them were freak injuries like Julius Randle’s shoulder injury and Jalen Brunson’s hand injury), but now, New York looks battle tested, conditioned, and ready for dogfights of a fourth quarter like the ones that were necessary in games one, two, and four. When the Knicks needed their best from their starters, they have mainly gotten that down the stretch, as the roster has been physically prepared to log 40-plus minutes if necessary when the games matter most. Meanwhile, the Celtics, perhaps more rested during the regular season, haven’t seemed as conditioned to outlast an opponent in late and close games with playoff-level intensity. Suddenly, the biggest area of criticism when it comes to Thibodeau seems like it has become a difference maker.
In all three cases in this series when a win was there for the taking late in the fourth quarter, Thibodeau’s Knicks have delivered. He altered the Knicks' 3-point defense strategy by prioritizing switching on the perimeter to start this series, which absolutely played a role in Boston's dreadful shooting nights in games one and two. In game one, when overtime was necessary, Thibodeau drew up a brilliant play for Brunson to fake coming up for a handoff, cut to the basket, and take a high-percentage floater. It rimmed out, but the Knicks still finished the job. Now they are on the cusp of finishing the job of winning the series and advancing to the franchise’s first conference final appearance in a quarter century.
This is the same head coach that pulled the organization from the depths of nothingness to becoming a consistent playoff presence where a postseason series win has become an annual occurrence. Now, as the Knicks are on the brink of taking another step under Thibodeau, it’s time to appreciate the head coach’s contributions rather than pondering his future.