Tom Thibodeau was brought in to right the New York Knicks ship in 2020 and since then it has been an uphill battle. The Knickerbockers have looked anything but average this season and their latest defeat to the Chicago Bulls by 110-102 dropped the team to 9-13 in the 2021/2022 NBA season. During the game Thibodeau was visibly upset, screaming at the referees and his players for their defensive breakdowns and poor offensive form. To top it off the Knicks lost their second straight game and are way off the pack from the top teams of the East.
The New York Knicks currently sit tenth in the fifteen team Eastern Conference and the New York franchise has lost five of their last six games and are now a Thibodeau worst four games under .500. Against the Bulls the Knicks shot 6 of 29 from the 3-point line and were behind by as much as 11 points in the first quarter.
To make things even worse for Tom Thibodeau his post-game press conference was even interrupted by technical difficulties, which got him even more upset. When the things finally got settled Thibodeau didn’t hold back on his team’s current form and laid out the concentration issues of his players during the Zoom press conference.
Tom Thibodeau on the latest Knicks defeat
“Just not the effort that we’re capable of…I know that we have the makings of a very good defensive team and it’s when we’re concentrating and we’re giving maximum effort, we’re usually pretty good. Just using the timeout, trying to fix it.” Thibodeau made note of the team’s lack of concentration by stating, “You need consistent effort for 48 minutes, particularly on the road, to come up with wins, and right now we’re not there.’’
Thibodeau has built the Knicks to be a better defensive team than offense, against the Bulls none of those elements were present and he finished by stating, “I thought we had some good looks at the bucket, they didn’t go down for us. We have to count on our defense.’’
For the New York Knicks it was another disappointing performance for a team that is still trying to build itself back up. Now they must look forward to tomorrow’s rematch against the Chicago Bulls in a game that becomes very important so that the Knicks can climb the standings.