In their first game without star point guard Jalen Brunson on Friday night, the Knicks struggled offensively and fell to the Los Angeles Clippers, 105-95, for their third straight loss.
Brunson is expected to miss at least two weeks with an ankle sprain, as head coach Tom Thibodeau made it clear during the postgame that New York will need to “adapt quickly” to playing without their leader. The Knicks have started their five-game West Coast road trip 0-2 and are now 40-23 on the season, just three games up on the Milwaukee Bucks (36-25) for the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference standings.
“It’s a quick turnaround,” Thibodeau told reporters after the loss. “So you come in, you have a walk-through in a ballroom. And then we have to adjust and we have to adapt quickly. We have more than enough. And we gotta find a way to get it done.”
Thibodeau credited the Clippers (34-29) for being “a really good defensive team,” but acknowledged his squad needs to clean up the turnovers (15 on Friday night) and rebounding if they hope to win games without Brunson on the court.
“I thought overall, they shot 42 percent. We out-rebounded them by five. Our turnovers probably hurt us some and we gave up two timely offensive rebounds in a crucial sequence in the fourth,” Thibodeau said. “So those are things that we have to clean up.
“And we went in saying, if the defense and the rebounding and keeping the turnovers were down, we’d have a chance to win, and I thought we were in position and went all the way to the end. So we fell short tonight, but there was some good things that happened in the game.”
Despite not having Brunson, the Knicks still had Karl-Anthony Towns, who returned to action Thursday after missing Tuesday’s game due to the death of a family friend. Thibodeau added that Towns is “still finding his rhythm” after missing time and adjusting to playing without Brunson. The All-Star finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds in 34 minutes of action.
“He’s still finding his rhythm,” Thibodeau said. “Time off, and so we got to get them into rhythm. We’ve got to work at it.”
Towns reiterated Thibodeau’s point that the Knicks need to “figure it out quick” amid their playoff push without Brunson playing, noting that it’s going to take some time.
“Yeah, of course. A huge part of our team is missing,” Towns said. “Next man up, we gotta be better. We gotta figure it out quick.”
He added: “We gotta do a better job of making it more difficult for them shooting a three ball… We got to be better, but you know, we all go to step it up a level.”
On Miles McBride’s performance
With Brunson sidelined, McBride got the start and finished the game with seven points, six assists, and two rebounds in 34 minutes. He struggled shooting, going just 2-for-13 from the field, including seven missed three-pointers.
Despite the tough performance, Thibodeau expressed his confidence in McBride stepping up and being more of a ball-handler with Brunson out.
“First game. He’ll get his rhythm,” Thibodeau said. “When he’s starting, he has the ball in his hands more. When he’s playing with the second unit, he was off the ball and Cam [Payne] handled the ball more, but Deuce can do it.
“I’ve seen him have huge games there. I have a lot of confidence in his ability.”
