On December 24, Beijing time, the Knicks played at home against the Wizards, and after 4 quarters of bitter fighting, the Knicks finally lost to their opponents 117-124, missing two consecutive wins. In this game, the Wizards' star Bill was suspended for triggering a health and safety agreement, but they did not fall into a slump, but played a multi-point blossoming team offense, and finally saved the victory. Knicks veteran Kemba Walker played a dream performance, regrettably not helping the team win the game.
In this game, Walker continued to start the game, playing 43 minutes, shooting 14 of 27, 7 of 14 three-pointers, 9 of 9 from the free throw line, and bombed 44 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists, all three of which set a new high for the season and became the brightest star of the game. But Walker played a super performance but failed to help the team win, 40+ quasi-triple doubles turned into empty slashes, the Knicks are still mired in the quagmire, after the loss, the team record 14 wins and 18 losses, continue to rank 12th in the East.
Last season, the Knicks performed amazingly, and finally entered the playoffs as the fourth in the East, and after the new season team introduced a number of scorers, the team was full of confidence and aimed at a higher goal, but unfortunately, the team's performance so far this season has struggled, not only failed to continue the performance of last season, but also fell into the lottery, getting farther and farther away from the playoff goal. At the end of last month, in order to make adjustments to the lineup, Thibodeau directly targeted the veteran Kemba Walker, who he believed was a burden to the team on the field, and most of the reasons for losing were related to him, so he directly announced his abandonment. After last week's team suffered a staffing drought, Thibodeau had to restart Kemba Walker, the veteran was absent for nearly a month, and after being reactivated, he showed a fiery state. In the past 2 games, he has scored 29 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 21 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, and the performance is still star level, and in this game, Walker's performance is even more uncontrollable.
After Kemba Walker returned, the Knicks achieved a record of 1 win and 2 losses, the team's current situation remained unchanged, and Kemba Walker averaged 31.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, the best player on the team, he used practical actions to punch Thibodeau, the Knicks' poor performance so far this season, is not his fault. In this game against the Wizards, Walker tried his best to help the team win, but his personal plus-minus of +4 ranked first in the team, and the entire team was only positive for him and substitute Dotson, the latter was +3, and the others were negative.
In fact, Thibodeau as a classical coach, a lot of tactical concepts have not been suitable for today's league, although last season his iron-blooded defense let the Knicks once see the hope of rise, but so far this season, the Knicks not only did not improve much on the offensive end, the defensive end is a significant decline, and Thibodeau has exhausted various methods so far has not been able to get the Knicks back on track, there is a trend of poor donkey skills, before the sudden abandonment of Kemba Walker has also proved him wrong, and for the team status quo, Thibodeau should obviously be the one who needs to be responsible.