{"id":27053,"date":"2025-05-12T10:10:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T10:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/27053\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T10:10:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T10:10:19","slug":"tom-thibodeau-giving-key-knicks-rest-days-down-closing-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/27053\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Thibodeau giving key Knicks rest days down closing stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past two games, the Knicks were as deep and healthy as they had been all season.<\/p>\n

Even Tom Thibodeau appears willing to bend his core principles to help ensure that is the case when the playoffs begin.<\/p>\n

Prior to Thursday\u2019s game against the Pistons, their likely first-round opponent, the Knicks announced OG Anunoby (right thumb sprain), Josh Hart (right knee patellofemoral syndrome) and Mitchell Robinson (left ankle surgery injury recovery) will sit out the matchup. <\/p>\n

In Tuesday\u2019s overtime loss to the Celtics<\/a>, Anunoby (41 minutes) and Hart (48 minutes) saw their most action, respectively, in roughly a month.<\/p>\n

The Knicks (50-29), who need just one win or one Pacers loss to secure the No. 3 seed in the East, could be expected to sit other key contributors (including Jalen Brunson) with a home game scheduled the following day against the Cavaliers \u2014 who could also rest multiple players after clinching the top seed \u2014 and Sunday\u2019s regular-season finale in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

The Pistons (43-36) look certain to end up as the No. 6 seed after losing four of their past five games, with the magic number for the Bucks (45-34) down to two \u2014 any combination of Milwaukee wins\/Detroit losses \u2014 to lock up the No. 5 seed. <\/p>\n

The Bucks host the lowly Pelicans on Thursday, before closing the regular season with a home-and-home set against the Pistons.<\/p>\n

\"OGOG Anunoby, slamming home a dunk during the Knicks\u2019 OT loss to the Celtics, is battling a right thumb sprain and will get an off day against the Pacers on Thursday. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

After failing their latest test against the defending champs, the Knicks could get another crack at Boston in Round 2.<\/p>\n

Even discounting the games during Brunson\u2019s absence, the Knicks have won just one of their past six games against teams over .500 with the All-NBA guard in action and have gone 3-17 against teams with a winning record and a top 10 defense. <\/p>\n

The Knicks are 1-2 against the Pistons this season. <\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Hart, greeting comedian Tracy Morgan during the Knicks\u2019 OT loss to the Celtics, won\u2019t play Thursday against the Pacers due to right knee patellofemoral syndrome. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Detroit won a pair of meetings at Madison Square Garden, following the Knicks\u2019 30-point win in Detroit on Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

In Detroit\u2019s wins, soon-to-be All-NBA selection Cade Cunningham proved to be a nightmare matchup, posting a triple-double (29 points, 15 assists, 10 rebounds) on Dec. 7 then scoring 36 points on Jan. 13.<\/p>\n

Brunson is \u201calmost there.\u201d After showing rust in his first game back from a sprained ankle that sidelined him for a month, the Knicks star looked the part Tuesday, scoring 27 points (5-for-12 on 3-pointers) with 10 assists and two turnovers in 38 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Brunson noted he couldn\u2019t \u201cfind any rhythm at all\u201d in Sunday\u2019s win over the Suns, as he put up 15 points (3-for-9 field goals) with six assists and three turnovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m almost there,\u201d Brunson said Tuesday night. \u201cThat\u2019s all I have to say about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thibodeau saw significant improvement in Brunson\u2019s movement and timing against the Celtics, but he also said that he doesn\u2019t believe the captain is back in peak-form yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Jalen gave us really good minutes,\u201d Thibodeau said. \u201cI thought he got into a pretty good rhythm. He was in attack mode and that\u2019s good for us. \u2026 Each game he\u2019s getting better and better, but the playoffs will be here shortly. So there\u2019s urgency to this.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past two games, the Knicks were as deep and healthy as they had been all season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,327,304,1247,6,1136,191,3810,3806,741,66,1416],"class_list":{"0":"post-27053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-josh-hart","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-mitchell-robinson","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-knicks","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkknicks","17":"tag-og-anunoby","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-tom-thibodeau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114494323056652458","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}