The Garden kept waiting for the Knicks to put the lowly Wizards away, and kept waiting, and kept waiting. Mama Thibodeau, who celebrated her birthday a day after her son Tom celebrated his, said there’d be nights like this.
The Knicks, 113-109 winners, better not play with the lack of fire and desperation and will to win they displayed against the Wizards on Thursday night against more worthy opponents.
One man, and only one man, did.
Jalen Brunson did.
Jalen Brunson refused to let the Knicks lose with the game on the line.
He was tired after back-to-backs after missing two games with a calf injury. He didn’t care. Ultimate warrior. Fearless. He scored 20 points in the fourth quarter. He finished with 41.
Not calf bad.
“Whatever it takes to win,” Brunson said. He was wearing his Villanova jacket, of course. “I gotta have the same attacking mindset, but I also gotta be smart. You gotta know time and score and situation, things like that.”
He always seems to know.
“What makes him special,” Donte DiVincenzo said, “is he makes the right play every time.”
It would be a crime if he was snubbed again for the All-Star Game.
Only twice in the past 24 seasons have the Knicks reached 50 wins. The 2012-13 Mike Woodson Knicks won 54 games before losing in the conference semifinals to the Pacers. Then you have to go back to the 1999-2000 Knicks when the Jeff Van Gundy Knicks won 50 games before losing in the conference finals to the Pacers.
The only other Knicks coaches who belong to the 50-Win Club: Red Holzman (5 times) Pat Riley (4), Rick Pitino (1). Van Gundy also won 57 games in 1996-97.
It is an exclusive club and there is no reason why Tom Thibodeau should not be joining that club this season.
“I think that 50 games has always sorta been a marker in the league of a really good regular season team, and I think unfortunately, people discount the challenge of the regular season and the consistency it takes to go out and play high-level basketball every single night in the NBA, and I think the Knicks are doing that,” NBA on TNT analyst Stan Van Gundy told The Post.
“I think if I’m a New York fan, I’m excited about this team, and look, I don’t think they’re as good as those other three teams [Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia], but I’m sincere in saying Miami was not nearly as good last year as the Knicks are now, and they ended up in the NBA Finals. In boxing you’ve got a puncher’s chance.
“I think New York has a better chance now than they’ve had in a long time to go a step further or two steps further in the playoffs. But I still think anything beyond winning in the first round they would need some breaks, or maybe they hit it right and continue to improve.”
With 23 home games remaining, a 25-15 finish to get to 50-32 is hardly an unreasonable expectation, whether or not they make a move before the Feb. 8 trade deadline.
“I just think there’s a narrative around [Thibodeau], everybody thinks he’s a good coach, they think he’s old school, they think he’s all defense and the whole thing,” SVG said, “and it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. It’s two years in a row now he’s had a top-10 offense, and I don’t think when you look at the roster, that’s a roster that you would think would be a great offense, either last year or now.”
The OG Anunoby trade has changed the complexion of the Knicks’ defense, especially if Mitchell Robinson makes it back before the end of the regular season. “[Anunoby] can go match up with best player on every other team in the league,” SVG said. “It makes them a far more formidable playoff team than they were before.”
against the Wizards on Thursday, Charles Wenzelberg
Above all else, it is the presence of Brunson alongside Julius Randle that makes 50 wins better than a 50-50 proposition.
“I think what New York did with that trade with OG was a step forward,” SVG said. “I think they gave themselves a puncher’s chance. If somehow they can add a bench scorer to that group, now they’ve got a little bit more of a chance. But I don’t see a route for them to come up with a roster where I would look at it and say. ‘Yeah, I think their roster’s as talented as Milwaukee’s and Boston’s’, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Or Philly’s.
“I think right now that I would put the Knicks in a group with Miami and Cleveland in those 4 through 7 spots. But the caveat is Miami was even lower than that a year ago and ended up in the Finals. So I think if you get in those spots and put things together at the right time and get the right matchups and have the right health, you could make a run from being that horse coming up on the outside and get in. But it’s still something of a longshot.
“Brunson and Randle are good players, but are you taking Brunson and Randle over [Joel] Embiid and [Tyrese] Maxey? Are you taking them over [Jayson] Tatum and [Jaylen] Brown? Are you taking them over [Damian] Lillard and Giannis [Antetokounmpo]? You’re not, you’re just not. So I think they’re still on the outside. They certainly have a chance if things go right, but you would need a lot of things to align correctly for them to have a run.”
The Knicks remain in the market for a bench playmaker/facilitator and have been linked to the likes of Dejounte Murray, Malcolm Brogdon, Jordan Clarkson, DeMar DeRozan and most recently, Bruce Brown (12.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg), who was just traded by the Pacers to the Raptors in the Pascal Siakam deal. They have fielded calls on Quentin Grimes.
“I think a guy like Clarkson, a guy who would be able to add some offensive punch off the bench would be what they would need the most, that’s just me looking from the outside,” SVG said. “Those are all great names. I don’t see a lot of trade value left on the Knicks, that’s the problem.”
The Garden knows that without Brunson, the Knicks wouldn’t have a prayer to win 50 games. “MVP,” they kept chanting. “MVP.”
