CLEVELAND — You can forget how long the season really is sometimes. The Knicks have been on such a roll the last few weeks, wrapping up the No. 5 seed in what was at one point a hyper-tense battle for that spot with the Nets and the Heat, hitting the ground running in the playoffs, winning three of the first four games of this series with the Cavaliers.
These are the good days: for the Knicks, for Knicks fans, for those who will watch Game 5 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse hoping the Knicks can take care of their business quickly, give the Cavs the boot while they’re leaning halfway out the boat, not let them start to believe they can come back from 1-3 down in this best-of-seven.
Dec. 4 probably feels like a long time ago.
And it is — 143 days is more than one-third of a calendar year. On the morning of Dec. 4, the Jets were 7-4 and looking for all the world like a playoff team under quarterback-of-the-future Mike White. On Dec. 4, baseball folks were gathering in San Diego for the winter meetings, and the buzz was starting to grow that maybe the Yankees were going to see Aaron Judge stay behind in California without them. Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and the Nets were fixing to embark on a 12-game winning streak that would take them to the top of the East.
A lot can happen in 143 days.
On Dec. 4, the Knicks were hurting. They were bleeding. They had lost six out of eight. They were a moribund 10-13. The day before, 12:30 at the Garden, they’d been humiliated by the Mavericks 121-100, allowing 41 points — 41! — in the third quarter, their fifth straight loss at Madison Square Garden. And all around town, an old familiar grumble started to buzz around those basketball precincts where such matters are still discussed intently and intensely.
Was Tom Thibodeau toast?
Was he done?
Had the Knicks stopped listening to Thibs in Year 3? Were they about to take a major step backward? And at the least optimum time, the Cavaliers and Donovan Mitchell were coming to town that Sunday afternoon, ready to put a hurting on the Knicks. The house wasn’t even full that day, but there were still 19,007 salty Knicks fans eager to lend their voices to the cause once things started to go sideways, as they inevitably would.
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But a few things happened.
First, in the aftermath of the Mavericks slaughter, Jalen Brunson cleared his throat and proved that he wasn’t only planning on leading with his play on the court. He was asked about the 8,000-pound purple elephant in the room: Had Thibs lost the team?
“It’s on us,” Brunson said, extra emphasis on the “us.” “We’re the players out there not battling. It’s his job to put us in the right positions, which he’s done. I think he knows where to put those puzzle pieces. It’s just on us to actually execute and do things. So I know he’s going to get a lot of the blame. I think Coach Thibs has done a great job.”
Then something else happened: The Knicks beat the Cavs that night, 92-81 — a rough game reminiscent of Game 3 last Friday. They also won the seven games after that. They were above .500 to stay. Now they sit one game away from making a trip to the conference semifinals that would have felt like a hallucination on Dec. 4.
And if Thibodeau was shouldering every parcel of blame then, it’s only fair to mention the job he’s done since then. Not only are the Knicks 40-23 since, but he completely transformed the season by going to a strict nine-man rotation while still preaching defense every day, every hour — and the Knicks eventually let the sermons sink in.
It is also worth mentioning that across five games of this series, he has completely coached circles around Cleveland’s J.B. Bickerstaff, making adjustments game-to-game and quarter-to-quarter that have invariably worked out — including the bold step of benching Julius Randle the whole fourth quarter Sunday in Game 4.
“We won the game,” Randle said Tuesday, free of rancor or rage. “It was Thibs’ decision.”
Thibodeau’s decisions have done exactly what Brunson said they were doing even in December, even before the Knicks started to jell: He’s put them in the right positions. The results are the lone evidence anyone needs.
“That’s the beauty of the league,” Thibodeau said. “If you love competition, that’s what you look forward to. It should bring the best out of you. If you’re doing the right things, each and every day, you’re going to enjoy this. It’s competition at its best.”
The Jets are still looking for an eighth win and are calling up some kid quarterback from Wisconsin. Mike White is a Dolphin. Judge signed back with the Yankees three days later for a cool $360 million. Durant is in Phoenix. Irving was last seen in Dallas.
A lot can happen in 143 days. Just look at the Knicks. Just ask Thibodeau, who has gone from fired coach walking to resuming his usual place among the NBA’s elite coaches. Doing now what he was doing then. Just with happier results.
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