Clippers 106, Knicks 95: Squeaky-bum time
The Knicks lost their third straight and face some difficult questions
Back in the 1970s, a relative from before my time got mixed-up with the mob. Low-level stuff, transporting money from this guy to that, never knowing or asking what the money was from – or for. One day something spooked him and he decided to quit the mob cold turkey. Hopped on a plane from NYC to Puerto Rico that day. This is Puerto Rico before it became the island-wide gentrification project it is today, where the U.S. government writes radically imbalanced laws to attract wealthy Americans via expelling the natives. Puerto Rico in the ‘70s was still mostly Puerto Ricans. When my relative arrived, no one knew why he’d come back and nobody asked. That night there was a celebration.
The next morning he woke up early and, as he had done as a youngster, walked to his favorite spot, one of the many private little beaches known to locals that tourists would drive by without ever noticing. As he lay on the sand listening to the Caribbean sing, he heard a new note, a faint percussive. He turned toward the noise to see two white men in black suits approaching. They told him to be back in New York tomorrow. Told him they weren’t asking.
“How unerringly we find the paths that unmake us,” Mike Carey wrote. The New York Knicks, like my relative, appeared to have found their way safely away from the chaos around them, their recent nine-game winning streak seeming to secure them a spot in the 4/5 seeding bracket with Cleveland. With Miami struggling and Brooklyn clearly fading, the last 10-15 games figured to find the Knicks trying to stay sharp and healthy as they readied themselves for the playoffs. But some questions, like those Mafioso, are inescapable. About those best-laid plans . . .
The Knicks fell 106-95 to the Los Angeles Clippers, a team that exemplifies Hollywood logic: get a couple big names to star in the project and even if it’s a disappointment, you’ll make your money back and then some. The problem with the Clippers has been their stars actually being available most nights. For very different reasons, the Knicks find themselves having to consider similar questions about their stars.
Jalen Brunson was absent for this game dealing with the same ankle/foot soreness he has for almost a week. He could very well miss Sunday night’s game against the Lakers. Same with Portland Tuesday. Would the Knicks give him basically the rest of the week to rest, and hold him back until they return home Saturday to face Denver? It depends on what the organization’s priority is.
Two years ago the Knicks were a losing team with 20 games left. They exploded over that span, going 16-4 to rise to fourth in the East. At the time I thought that was important: the franchise had not had a smidge of success for years; they should be fumigating the funk of failure with as much sunshine and fresh air as possible. Then they got run off the floor by Atlanta. I think this is where resting Brunson could help offset one of Tom Thibodeau’s unflinching qualities, to the benefit of the team.
Thibs, like Parker Lewis, can’t lose. It may ironically be what works against his teams winning more in the postseason. Whereas many teams run 10-deep during the regular season, if not dabble even deeper, Thibs has been set for months now with a nine-man rotation. There is obvious wisdom there: if you only play nine, your best players are on the floor more often, meaning your team’s minutes are more often than not maximized. But therein lay the rub: other teams cut their rotations down in the playoffs, meaning most teams you face in April, May and June are better than what they were in March. I don’t think Thibodeau teams enjoy the same distinction. He’s always going to try to win today: get the W today, and tomorrow do the work toward getting the next W.
By that logic, Brunson will return ASAP. I don’t get the sense the player is hardwired any differently than the coach; he wants to be back on the floor as desperately as anyone else wishes for his return. Would Thibodeau consciously think “I’m willing to put Brunson’s risk of repeating his injury aside in order to finish 5th instead of 6th”? No. Would he coach the team in a way that risks the injury in pursuit of the most wins possible? I don’t think he knows any other way to be.
With Brunson the question is one of physical health. With Julius Randle, the question’s origin is a place I can’t identify. I’m not sure what it is, if anything. But it happens enough with this player that it’s not nothing. And just as a lover is not the same as a partner, a terrific player is not the same as a franchise foundation. The latter’s demands are an entirely different set from the former’s. Where does Randle stand?
At the end of the third quarter, the referees having consistently allowed for a physical game, Randle – who shot just 5 of 24 – was obviously frustrated. On the Knicks’ last possession of the quarter, after missing a shot on the break and feeling there should have been a call, Randle spent much of his time moving to the defensive end of the floor staring at one of the officials. When the halfcourt set left him a few seconds to stand still near the baseline, he said something to another official. You could see something was coming. Sometimes Randle gets away with it; sometimes the action spares him the moment he’d need to go through with it. But you can see times in games where Randle, who burns at a low temperature, is stuck out there while the heat is rising, and it clearly throws him off.
It wasn’t a shock when Randle appeared to give Mason Plumlee an elbow from behind right into his back. It wasn’t even one when he then threw an elbow at Plumlee’s face. Feelings aren’t facts and flashes of detail even less so, but it was surprising seeing Thibodeau on the sideline shortly after with both arms around Randle, clearly trying to restrain him. Randle didn’t appear to be trying to lash out, physically, but it was obvious from the body language of the Knick coaches and players that their focus was squarely on keeping Randle from getting any hotter. He was even getting into it verbally with arena security personnel.
Some players have to play with a certain edge; without it, we wouldn’t know their names. If John Starks played like Allan Houston, he never makes it tot he NBA. Nate Robinson couldn’t take an Andre Miller approach to balling: he had to be Nate. Even some of the greats, an Allen Iverson or Russell Westbrook, may either fail to notice when that edge is working against them or simply be incapable of stopping. My grandfather is 88 and his doctor’s told him to stay off ladders, stop doing work outside, etc. My grandfather can’t stop. Won’t stop. I don’t think Randle is that kind of player.
Allowing for exceptions like his explosion after Kyle Kuzma stepped out of line a few weeks ago, Randle works best in peace and in rhythm. Would the Knicks consider approaching his mental state the rest of the season with the same caution of Brunson’s physical health? Sacrifice a game here or there to put your best players in the best position to succeed come April? Is any of this even fair to wonder? After all, there’s no way to know if Randle’s anger yesterday was isolated to some particular prompt or part of a larger pattern invisible to many of us.
But frustration rrrrreally frustrates Randle. I get that. The seemingly dumbest things can trigger my PTSD. There’s a lock on the garage door leading to the backyard, right under where the window blinds fall. The other night I reached up under the blinds to unlock the door, and was confused to find the lock was gone. Of course it wasn’t; the blinds were down lower than usual, so they were covering it, and I wasn’t used to reaching and not finding it. There is an instant, almost seething fury that rises in me after the confusion becomes frustration. Frustration protects me from confusion. Confusion is somewhere I don’t like to be. When I see Randle frustrated, I imagine it’s protecting him from somewhere else. Whatever peace he’s pursuing, I pray he finds it.
It does raise the question, as a Knicks fan, as to what the franchise will come up with as the best approach to Brunson’s foot and Randle’s frustration. The nature of what’s left this season – a run-in to the playoffs that 25 teams are still competing in, plus the postseason itself – eliminates any easy answers. Brunson’s foot is not going to heal fully unless the Knicks sit him the rest of the year, which isn’t going to happen. Randle is going to come up against more and more frustration as teams focus more intensely on him with the season winding down and the playoffs near. What the Knicks do to address what their two best players are feeling will go a long way toward shaping how the franchise and the fans are left feeling about it all, too.
