What can you glean from a preseason-opener against a team sitting each of its best six players?
The Knicks kicked off their 2023-24 NBA preseason hosting a Boston Celtics team that rested Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Derrick White.
They protected home court at Madison Square Garden with a 114-107 victory over the undermanned Celtics to jump out to a 1-0 start to exhibition play. The Knicks, however, will play the Celtics again on Oct. 17 in the first game of a preseason back-to-back – and then again for the regular-season opener at The Garden on Oct. 25.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said ahead of tipoff the most important thing to take away from a relatively meaningless preseason game is taking advantage of the team’s first opportunity to compete against an opponent after spending a week scrimmaging in training camp in Charleston, SC.
“Just establish a baseline to see: (It’s) the first opportunity to get out and compete as a team,” the Knicks’ coach said Monday evening. “So be a team. That’s always the first priority, and then, be ready to play. Establish who we are, style of play, that sort of thing.”
Thibodeau carried-over last season’s starters and went with Jalen Brunson, Quentin Grimes, R.J. Barrett, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson.
Brunson played just six minutes and scored 10 points on four-of-five shooting from the field. Robinson and Grimes played the most of any starters, Randle logged just 13 minutes and Barrett played 16 minutes. Quickley scored a game-high 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field off the bench.
“Just get your feet wet,” Thibodeau said was his minutes limit rationale ahead of tip-off on Monday. “(It’ll) sort of be a lot lighter, bigger rotation. We’ll see how that unfolds, but it’ll be much shorter than normal.”
Josh Hart and Ryan Arcidiacono did not play as part of what Thibodeau called “maintenance stuff,” so the first players off the bench were Sixth Man of the Year runner-up Immanuel Quickley and reserve big man Jericho Sims.
Sims’ emergence as one of the first two players off the bench comes after Thibodeau called him a standout player during Knicks training camp in Charleston, SC.
“We wanted to get a look at that with him on the floor,” said Thibodeau postgame. “With Josh out and Julius playing limited minutes, it was a good opportunity for that.”
The decision to insert him into the lineup in place of Randle and alongside Robinson was surprising given Robinson and Sims only shared the floor for 11 total minutes all of last season.
Thibodeau also played Sims alongside reserve big man Isaiah Hartenstein for long stretches of Monday’s preseason opener against the Celtics.
“Jericho just brings obviously a tremendous amount of athleticism and versatility to the floor,” Randle said of his teammate postgame. “He brings a lot of energy rebounding the ball, doing the little things, setting good screens, rolling hard to the basket. So, he looked really good today.”
The dual big man approach could be a response to the lack of a traditional four to backup Randle after the Knicks traded former first-round pick Obi Toppin to the Indiana Pacers for a pair of second-round draft picks over the summer. Hart is slotted to play minutes at the backup four spot and did not suit up on Monday.
“The thing I like about Josh is you don’t lose anything because he can guard multiple positions. He can guard up, he can guard down and he’s a great rebounder. So we like that,” Thibodeau said on the final day of training camp in Charleston. “Jericho has really had a great camp. He’s the one guy, obviously coming off the surgery, he had a great summer the way he worked. He’s really done a good job for us.”
FINAL ROSTER SPOT
The Knicks have three roster spots open with three exhibition games left until the regular season, which means there’s a battle for end-of-the-rotation spots on a playoff-bound basketball team underway.
Ryan Arcidiacono, Charlie Brown Jr., Duane Washington Jr. and Jacob Toppin – Obi Toppin’s younger brother – are the players who have signed contracts with the Knicks that are in the mix for the final roster spot.
Thibodeau also said the Knicks are monitoring other teams’ training camp battles in case a quality player on another team fails to earn a roster spot.
“Not stuck on it,” he said when asked if the team is planning to fill the final roster spot. “We have a number of guys who are fighting it out for those spots at the end, and they’re all worthy. They’ve been here a long time . They’re working extremely hard, and they’ve done their jobs, so we’ll see how it unfolds.
“We’ll be looking at other things as well, whether it’s people being released on guaranteed contracts because their team is over (the roster maximum). So whatever we feel will help the team the most, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Thibodeau also said during training camp he wanted to retain some of the end-of-the-roster players for the Westchester Knicks team.
“It’s going to be a tough call. Like I said, those guys have been here for a good chunk of the summer and fall and worked extremely hard,” he said on Saturday in Charleston. “We’ll see how it unfolds. We still have a little more time to go. But they’ve been terrific. Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep some of those guys for our G League team. I like who they are, I like how they practice, I like how they compete.”
FOURNIER’S ROLLER COASTER RIDE
After declaring he could still help the Knicks this season following his benching most of last year, Evan Fournier checked into the game at the 2:57 mark of the first quarter on Monday.
The Knicks were up 25-16 when he entered the game and gave up a 13-3 run to finish the quarter down, 29-28, entering the second period.
The lineup of Fournier, Quickley, Sims, Hartenstein and Donte DiVincenzo was outscored by 10 in those minutes by the Celtics’ third unit.
Fournier, however, caught fire after the slow start and finished the game with 11 points on three-of-five shooting from downtown. He also converted on a pretty, one-handed catch-and-scoop layup on a dime from Hartenstein in the fourth quarter.
The French forward categorized his night as “decent.”
“Tried to make some plays,” he said. “Kind of trying to find my legs, build chemistry with the guys, understand how the team is gonna play and just be ready for anything really in my personal situation.”
Knicks cruise to preseason victory over load-managed Celtics
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