New York Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek could be content with his team’s .500 start. Few people expected them to contend for 25-plus victories this season, even while factoring in a leap from Kristaps Porzingis. That they’re almost halfway there less than 20 games into the season, with a puncher’s chance of sticking in the Eastern Conference’s playoff picture, could be seen as a big-time win.
But not to him.
The Knicks have no dropped three straight after their 103-91 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night. The most troubling aspect aside from the result: the team’s energy. The Knicks looked flat, as they have so many times before this year. The difference this time was they were playing at home, where they’ve been largely spectacular, posting a 9-4 record.
Madison Square Garden has been their safe haven. To see them struggle there and let the game get out of hand on multiple occasions really makes you question whether they’re actually better than most thought or just another early-season flash in the pan.
Perhaps sensing a turn for the worst, Hornacek called out the team’s effort, per ESPN.com’s Ian Begley:
Jeff Hornacek said NYK was ‘low energy’ in loss to POR: “We’re not the team that can just come out there and think we’re just going to play and try to step it up later. We’ve got to do it from the tip off. I thought our energy was not good enough in the first three quarters.”
And for what it’s worth, Enes Kanter, who has missed the past three games with back spasms, essentially echoed Hornacek’s sentiments:
Enes Kanter had a potential solution for the Knicks’ energy issues against Portland tonight: pic.twitter.com/nqLo0ugNMB
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) November 28, 2017
Both Kanter and Hornacek are correct. The Knicks don’t have nearly enough established talent to get by on that alone. They will win games by catching teams off guard from the jump—by delivering a “Hey, yeah, we’re here” punch in the first quarter, and to start the second half.
They didn’t do that against the Blazers, who outscored them by 11.7 points per 100 possessions in that opening frame, according to NBA.com. And they haven’t fared too well to start the second half during their three-game slide; they’re being clobbered by more than 62 points per 100 possessions in third quarters, by far and away the worst mark in the NBA over this pan.
We’ll have to see whether the team takes Hornacek’s challenge to heart in advance of their tilt against the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
