It has been more than a year since the New York derby has regained interest.
It must be said that between the arrivals of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving then James Harden at the Nets, and the signing of the tandem Tom Thibodeau – Leon Rose to supervise the young Knicks, the two franchises of “Big Apple” have gradually made their return. in the foreground, for today both appearing in the Top 8 in the East.
Better yet: if the ranking remained unchanged in their conference by May 16, the date of the end of the regular season, Brooklyn (2nd) and New York (7th) would face each other squarely in the first round of the playoffs! Faced with such an eventuality, the third and (potential) last clash of the season between the two teams, scheduled for tonight, is of particular importance.
The collective as a watchword for the Knicks
For now, the Nets have won the first two derbies, in January and then in March. The Knicks will therefore be keen to clinch victory, so as to avoid leaving the keys to the city to their rivals for good this season.
And to do this, the men of Tom Thibodeau want above all to rely on their mentality and their collective.
« There are 15 players in the team », Recalls Reggie Bullock au New York Post. « In ours, there is our leader: the coach. We know how great we can be. Our goal from the start of this season was to be able to compete with anyone and to do it while having fun. »
Clearly, in opposition to the “Big 3” of the Nets, the Knicks do not hesitate to speak of “Big 15” to highlight the power of their collective.
« We have a very good team », Continues the back. ” We don’t really care about their “Big Three”. We know what kind of basketball we can develop. We focus first on our team and on the game plan established by the coach. That’s all we care about: the Knicks. »
Same story with Julius Randle, leader of these surprising Knicks, with his new All-Star status and his 23.0 points, 10.7 rebounds and 5.8 average assists.
« We only care about ourselves », Struck again the interior of 26 years, still in the columns of the New York Post. ” We have a set of players. We play hard, with energy and we try to play the right way. And that’s what we feel like we are doing. We can beat anyone. It is not about them, who they own or do not have. It’s just about us and fighting at a high level every night. »
Even diminished, the Nets remain threatening
Next night, the Nets could once again be deprived of Kevin Durant and James Harden, both hamstring damage and still uncertain for the third round of this New York derby.
However, Tom Thibodeau is not concerned about the potential absences of his opponents, recently reinforced by the signatures of Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge.
« We know how talented they are »Assures the coach. ” We must be ready. Even if one of them is missing, they still have a lot of talent and they have even added more. But we know that if we defend and lose few balls, we are able [de les battre]. »
| Tirs | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Tirs | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Until | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Fte | Pts |
| Julius Randle | 49 | 36.9 | 46.6 | 41.6 | 79.2 | 1.4 | 9.3 | 10.7 | 5.8 | 3.3 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 3.1 | 23.0 |
| R.j. Barrett | 50 | 34.0 | 44.4 | 34.9 | 72.9 | 1.1 | 4.9 | 5.9 | 3.1 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 17.2 |
| Alec Burks | 38 | 26.1 | 42.4 | 41.2 | 85.4 | 0.5 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 12.9 |
| Immanuel Quickley | 45 | 19.9 | 38.5 | 37.0 | 89.3 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 12.4 |
| Elfrid Payton | 41 | 26.8 | 43.7 | 24.7 | 71.0 | 1.3 | 2.5 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 1.8 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 12.0 |
| Derrick Rose | 14 | 24.8 | 41.2 | 37.8 | 82.1 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 4.1 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 11.6 |
| Reggie Bullock | 43 | 27.8 | 42.7 | 40.0 | 86.7 | 0.3 | 3.1 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 9.5 |
| Mitchell Robinson | 31 | 27.5 | 65.3 | 0.0 | 49.1 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 8.1 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 2.8 | 8.3 |
| Austin Rivers | 21 | 21.1 | 43.0 | 36.4 | 71.4 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 7.3 |
| Taj Gibson | 23 | 19.9 | 60.5 | 21.4 | 61.3 | 1.8 | 3.2 | 5.0 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 2.0 | 5.0 |
| Nerlens Noel | 44 | 22.8 | 60.1 | 0.0 | 65.8 | 2.2 | 3.9 | 6.1 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.6 | 4.8 |
| Kevin Knox | 33 | 13.1 | 40.6 | 41.0 | 81.2 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 4.7 |
| Obi Toppin | 40 | 11.8 | 47.9 | 29.8 | 72.2 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 4.2 |
| Frank Ntilikina | 18 | 14.0 | 35.9 | 45.9 | 50.0 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 3.9 |
| Dennis Smith | 3 | 9.2 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 83.3 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 3.0 |
| Norvel Leather | 1 | 2.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Ignas Brazdeikis | 4 | 1.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| Jared Harper | 4 | 2.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| According to Pinson | 14 | 2.2 | 11.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
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