The Knicks’ five biggest fixes entering second half
NY Post
The Knicks hit the midway point of the 82-game season with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference and the fifth-best in the entire NBA.
Tom Thibodeau often says — and reiterated as much following Monday’s home loss to the Pistons — that he is striving for daily improvement, with the goal to peak at the end of the season in time for the start of the playoffs.
“There’s a lot of challenges throughout the course of the season, so there’s ups and downs, and you have to handle that,” Thibodeau said after the Knicks lost for the fifth time in seven games following a nine-game winning streak. “You’ve got to get through things together, but you never can lose sight of how important it is to improve every day, and then hopefully at the end you’re playing your best basketball.
“There’s still a lot of things that we can do better that we have to lock into.”
Here are five areas in which the Knicks (26-15) most need to improve over the final 41 regular-season games, beginning with Wednesday’s road game against the banged-up 76ers:
With two 3-pointers converted in the final minute by Detroit’s Malik Beasley the latest examples, the Knick own the sixth-worst defensive percentage from beyond the arc in the league at 37.3 percent. This should not be the case with strong perimeter defenders such as OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart and reserve Miles McBride in the rotation.
It was 19 degrees in the sun Wednesday morning. It was so cold you had to defrost your hair before you could brush it. It was so cold it called to mind something Frank Gifford said early on the afternoon of Dec. 31, 1967, a few hours before kickoff at the Ice Bowl at Lambeau Field.
PHILADELPHIA — The Knicks were missing their KAT, while the 76ers were without a much larger portion of their litter.
SALT LAKE CITY — Sam Carrick has stepped into the spotlight amid the Rangers’ push to turn their season around.
The Mets lost out on Roki Sasaki but ended up with what they hope is a pretty good consolation prize in 17-year-old shortstop Elian Peña from the Dominican Republic.
PHILADELPHIA — You can still debate, with compelling arguments on the sides of wise and ill-advised, about the trades for OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns.
It’s only halfway through his first college season, but already Cole Eiserman looks on his way to being the player the Islanders envisioned upon drafting him 20th overall last summer.
As the reliever market continues to take shape, the Yankees remain interested in a reunion with left-hander Tim Hill and their competition could come from across town.
Karl-Anthony Towns might have made some sour New York sports fans a little angry on Wednesday night.
The Jets have interviewed 10 head-coaching candidates already, and there are another seven they have requested and are expected to interview.
Being a “s–t show” wasn’t part of LeBron James’ career blueprint.
The Jets have cast a wide net in their coaching search, but one of the hottest candidates of this coaching cycle may be emerging as the favorite.
We are in the middle of searching season for the Jets, as they try to find their new general manager and head coach.
We might as well start talking about this now. As early as next Tuesday, it’s at least possible that Carlos Beltran will earn the 75 percent of the vote necessary to gain entrance to the Hall of Fame. And when that happens — if not now, then some year soon — it’s going to be a most interesting thing to watch how Mets fans react.
The Knicks hit the midway point of the 82-game season with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference and the fifth-best in the entire NBA.
The Jets didn’t play a game this past weekend. They, of course, don’t play games at this time of year, having established that pattern by missing the playoffs the past 14 seasons.
DENVER — This was not the kind of loss the Rangers have become accustomed to this season.
It is believed that former Orioles pitcher Brian Matusz died of a drug overdose, according to a Phoenix police report obtained by the Baltimore Banner.
