The Knicks head to Miami for the second game of a home and away against the Miami Heat.
Throughout the season, Thibs has been particularly good at coming up with new schemes for the second game that the Knicks play against an opponent. We saw them lose to the Blazers and the Bulls in the first game and then beat the Blazers and the Bulls in the second game. In both instances, Thibs identified issues that the Knicks could exploit and they did so.
The Heat, though, also have a brilliant coach in terms of schemes in Erik Spoelstra. Spoelstra came up with some excellent schemes against the Knicks on Sunday, particularly making RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley look a bit lost (and it is the sort of scheme I imagine other teams will be trying, as well, although the Heat have better defensive personnel than most). However, even with all of that, the Knicks were right there in the Heat game.
The Heat have struggled mightily this season, although they’ve now won 3 of their last 5 games.
I think that the Knicks will have an easier time adjusting to the game on Sunday, so I think Thibs will come up with a way for his team to pull out a split tonight.
Derrick Rose won’t be joining the Knicks until Friday, and he’ll make his debut with the Knicks against one of the very worst teams in the NBA, the Washington Wizards, so that’ll be a nice way to get his return to the Knicks started. Wow, Derrick Rose IS going to make his Knick return tonight. That’s very surprising. This will be interesting.
Let’s go, get closer to .500, Knicks!