5 video games. 4 cities. Per week and a half on the highway.
A fast pit cease at house, then straight right into a back-to-back.
That’s eight flights — counting the journey house on the finish — 4 time zone modifications, and eight video games in 14 days.
That’s simply the daring lettering. Now for the fantastic print: The Knicks’ grueling Wednesday-Thursday back-to-back in San Antonio and Charlotte marked their 14th and fifteenth video games for the reason that All-Star break. Eleven of these have been on the highway.
The Knicks haven’t simply been taking part in your common NBA schedule. They’ve been residing out of suitcases, hopping metropolis to metropolis, and battling exhaustion in arenas that aren’t their very own.
It’s a brutal stretch for any staff, and the Knicks are feeling it.
“The schedule is the schedule,” head coach Tom Thibodeau stated after Wednesday’s loss in San Antonio. “Sometimes it’s in your favor, sometimes it’s not. We’ve been on the road a long time, and home for one, then turn right back around — but that’s our reality.”
The truth on Wednesday? The Knicks received blown out by a Spurs staff lacking Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox and Gregg Popovich. A shorthanded lottery-bound staff within the West, and but the Knicks trailed by as many as 28 factors earlier than the ultimate buzzer mercifully sealed a 120-105 defeat — their first lack of the season to any of the league’s bottom-four groups.
The loss reeked of exhaustion, fatigue creeping in from a relentless schedule that has zapped the power of a staff that had been brimming with it after the All-Star break.
“We knew this one was gonna be tough: A young, hungry team [that] plays fast,” Josh Hart stated. “Obviously we’ve had a tough schedule the last couple weeks — going on the road a week and a half, come back [home], [play a] national TV game, and then go right into a back-to-back. So it’s tough to a degree.”
The fatigue confirmed itself early — and sometimes — on the offensive finish. Whereas Karl-Anthony Cities received scorching, scoring New York’s first 9 factors and 19 by way of the primary half, the remainder of the Knicks starters shot 0-of-14 within the opening interval and simply 3-of-24 by way of the primary two quarters.
“I think it was just our energy,” stated Cities, who completed with 32 factors and 9 rebounds on 11-of-21 taking pictures. “We just didn’t play to the capabilities that I know we all can. We came out flat. We fought a little bit back in the second half, but they were hitting shots.”
Hart pointed to psychological fatigue as the larger problem. The NBA already has a extra travel-heavy cadence than its professional sports activities counterparts in soccer and baseball. The schedule-makers compounded issues by handing the Knicks seven highway video games in an eight-game stretch, together with two units of highway back-to-backs.
“The biggest thing about the NBA is the travel,” Hart advised reporters. “That’s the toughest thing. We’re in the dog days of the season, so you know your body’s already gonna be tired. You’ve gotta get going, and you’ve gotta find it mentally.
“[We’re] a little bit drained mentally, but we’ve gotta make sure we regroup. We’ve got another tough one tomorrow with a team that plays extremely fast, and we’re on a back-to-back, and we’re losing now, so we’ve got certain things schedule-wise against us, but we’ve gotta make sure we pick it up.”
Whereas the schedule has undeniably performed a job within the Knicks’ struggles, Cities refused to let it develop into a crutch.
“Nah. I don’t wanna start that [narrative],” he stated. “We’re a hell of a ball club, and we know what we can do, and we’ve shown the world what we can do. “We just didn’t do what we needed to do in the first half. We fought really hard in the second half but we just didn’t get the job done.”
The Knicks will hop on one other flight instantly after Thursday’s recreation in Charlotte, the place they’ll tackle the Hornets within the second leg of a back-to-back. Then, lastly, they return house for 5 of their subsequent six video games at Madison Sq. Backyard.
However earlier than they will exhale, they’ll need to survive what may flip right into a observe meet towards the younger, fast-paced Hornets. A loss in Charlotte would mark New York’s sixth in its final 9 video games,
“Just go in with the right mindset. That’s the challenge,” stated Thibodeau. “That’s what competition’s all about. Your mind is everything. So if you believe you can do something, you will.”
