Knicks a 'step behind' defensively against Spurs, Sandro Mamukelashvili: 'We just weren't there, physically or mentally'

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Looking at the schedule, anyone can see how brutal the Knicks’ recent stretch of games has been.

After a five-game West Coast road trip, New York came back home for one game before heading back out west to play the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night. A lot of traveling for a team that is trying to stay afloat without Jalen Brunson, who sprained his ankle early during the road trip.

But no one saw Wednesday’s loss to the Spurs playing out the way it did.

San Antonio, playing without Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox — their two best players who are missing the remainder of the season due to injuries — got out to a 28 first-half lead that seemingly rattled the Knicks defense.

The Spurs scored on their first five possessions, en route to shooting 51 percent from the field in the first half.

“Defensively, we were a step behind,” coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “We got in a big hole. Tough to get out of.”

The Knicks’ schedule has been a topic of discussion for why the team has gotten off to slow starts recently, especially in their last two contests.

In Monday’s game against the Heat at home — the first coming off their road trip — the Knicks were down as much as 13 points but fought back to win. Wednesday’s 28-point deficit turned out to be too large, but the team isn’t going to make their schedule the culprit for their slow starts.

“Not gonna say that [is the reason] because we got it to eight and then we just had some bad possessions and let them build a lead up,” Josh Hart said. “But we knew this one was going to be tough. Young hungry team. Plays fast, obviously. We've had a tough schedule…we knew it was going to be tough. We just weren't there, physically or mentally. We were just fatigued.”

As Hart alluded to, New York did cut the Spurs’ deficit to eight points twice. But it was their third-quarter performance, outscoring the Spurs 29-16 powered by their defense, that gave them a shot to steal this win. But when they made a run in the fourth quarter, San Antonio was lifted by an unlikely name: Sandro Mamukelashvili.

The Seton Hall product scored 21 of his career-high…

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Publish date : 2025-03-20 04:28:00

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