A landmark victory for New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau came in perfect Thibodeau-style ... perhaps a little too perfect.
Saturday's game between the Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies was tailor-made for the defensive-minded Thibodeau, who oversaw a 106-94 victory to earn 500 in his NBA career. The defensive drag saw the two teams combined for 45 turnovers and both teams were stuck below the century mark before a Josh Hart triple with just over three minutes remaining gave the Knicks a 102-90 lead and served as a de facto dagger.
With the win, Thibodeau is the 36th coach in NBA history to half a thousand wins, doing so in just under 12 seasons. To date, 148 victories have come with the Knicks.
Thibodeau offered a brief moment of reflection in the aftermath, calling his latest accomplishment a team effort.
“To me, it’s a byproduct of a lot of people working together,” Thibodeau said, per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “I’ve been fortunate to have a number of great players, great assistants, great organizations. You’re just part of it."
"From that standpoint, I’m proud of it, but it’s (also) all the people you’re doing it with," he continued, per Steve Popper of Newsday. "You can’t do stuff like that without great players. So I’m fortunate right now with the group that we have. We have an incredible group of players, not only players, but who they are as people as well.’’
Thibodeau, 65, has been an NBA staple since 1989, when he served as an assistant for the original Minnesota Timberwolves. His 500 wins, fourth-most among active NBA bosses, were acquired between head coaching stops in Chicago (2010-15), Minnesota (2016-19), and, of course, New York (2020-present).
Despite the win, the notoriously hard-to-please Thibodeau wasn't going to let history take his team off the hook for a flawed victory.
Thibodeau's Knicks (23-16) got back in the win column after a heartbreaker in Dallas on Thursday but Saturday's showdown against the severely shorthanded Grizzlies was far too close for comfort. Memphis even harbored a four-point lead going into the halftime break thanks to 14 Knick turnovers. Though the Knicks cleaned up their act in the second half (which saw Memphis score only 15 points in the third and shoot just over 34 percent overall), they ended Saturday's game with a season-worst 23 turnovers.
“We didn’t take care of the ball at all in the first half, put them in the open floor," Thibodeau noted in a report from Popper. "I thought the defense picked up a lot in the second half. The rebounding was good throughout. But our turnovers were problematic. Then we settled down and got better shots as well."
With Jalen Brunson (calf) out, heroes of both the familiar and unexpected variety rose for the Knicks in Memphis: Julius Randle (24 points, 11 rebounds) and Isaiah Hartenstein (20 rebounds, 12 points) each earned double-doubles while Miles McBride scored a career-best 19 points in Brunson's place.
Thibodeau will go for No. 501 on Monday afternoon when the Knicks face the Orlando Magic in a holiday matinee (3 p.m. ET, MSG).
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