{"id":97951,"date":"2025-06-14T09:46:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T09:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/97951\/"},"modified":"2025-06-14T09:46:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T09:46:22","slug":"worrisome-new-york-knicks-playoff-stat-could-set-up-tom-thibodeaus-ouster-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/97951\/","title":{"rendered":"Worrisome New York Knicks playoff stat could set up Tom Thibodeau\u2019s ouster this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A very worrisome New York Knicks<\/a> playoff stat about their leaky defense could make head coach Tom Thibodeau the fall guy this summer.<\/p>\n

Entering their playoff series against the Indiana Pacers,<\/a> there was a great deal of confidence coming out of New York. They were a team built to beat the defending champion Boston Celtics<\/a>, and they did that in the East semifinals. It set them up for a matchup with a Pacers team they probably should have beaten last season if not for frustrating injuries during their 2024 series.<\/p>\n

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Related: New York Knicks game today \u2013 Get a look at the Knicks upcoming playoff schedule<\/a><\/p>\n

However, after another loss on Tuesday night, the Knicks are one game away from seeing their memorable season come to an end earlier than hoped. Observers of the sport expected this to be a highly competitive series. With many predicting it would go to a seventh game. But no one foresaw New York losing both Game 1 and Game 2 on their home court. And being down 3-1 heading into Game 5.<\/p>\n

There has been a lot of conversation on why they have fallen into such a deep hole. And there will surely be a lot of debate if they are eliminated in the next week. However, an interesting stat from The Athletic\u2019s NBA analyst, Law Murray,<\/a> boils the Knicks\u2019 issues down to one simple thing: defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time in New York Knicks franchise history that they have lost multiple games in the same postseason despite scoring at least 120 points,\u201d he wrote in a post on X. \u201cIt\u2019s happened twice in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Obviously, this is an era where defense is not what it was, and the rules are geared more towards offense. However, the Knicks scored the No. 2 seed in the East last season by playing outstanding defense. It has been the hallmark of head coach Tom Thibodeau\u2019s entire career. Yet, this year\u2019s New York squad has been one of his less reliable since taking over the job in 2020.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau has a long history of being unable to get over the hump to take his teams to the NBA Finals. If that again happens this season, and it is because the thing he is most known for fails him, it will add to a narrative that he may not be the right fit for this team. If someone is going to take the fall, today\u2019s NBA has shown it will be the head coach long before any player or executives.<\/p>\n

Also Read:: 50 Best NBA players right now: Where do Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson land in 2025?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A very worrisome New York Knicks playoff stat about their leaky defense could make head coach Tom Thibodeau…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,75,2955,126,288,304,368,6,1136,191,3810,3806,1165,1416],"class_list":{"0":"post-97951","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-boston-celtics","10":"tag-eastern-conference-finals","11":"tag-indiana-pacers","12":"tag-jalen-brunson","13":"tag-knicks","14":"tag-luka-doncic","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-knicks","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkknicks","20":"tag-playoff-series","21":"tag-tom-thibodeau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114681084952190302","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97951","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=97951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}